Grilled Corn Recipes

There is nothing as tasty right off the grill as grilled corn on the cob.

I have included below links to many variations of grilled corn recipes.

What's Cooking America- grilled corn recipe

Cooks.com grilled corn

epicurious.com grilled corn tips

CDKitchen.com

Allrecipes.com-simple recipes

About.com always has delicious recipes and the grilled corn is no exception.

OK- enough recipes. Go on and enjoy some grilled corn soon!

Corn Rootworm

Corn Rootworm Overview
The Western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte, is one of the most devastating corn rootworm species in North America, especially in the midwestern corn-growing areas such as Iowa. A related species, the Northern corn rootworm, D. barberi Smith and Lawrence, co-inhabits in much of the range, and is fairly similar in biology; in the discussion below, many comparisons are made between the two species.

There are two other subspecies of D. virgifera; one, the Mexican corn rootworm (Diabrotica virgifera zeae) is a significant pest in its own right, attacking corn in Mexico.

Corn rootworm larvae can destroy significant percentages of corn if left untreated. In the United States, current estimates show that 30 million acres (120,000 km²) of corn (out of 80 million grown) are infested with corn rootworms and area is expected to grow over the next 20 years. The United States Department of Agriculture estimates that corn rootworms cause $1 billion in lost revenue each year, which includes $800 million in yield loss and $200 million in cost of treatment for corn growers (The Dow Chemical Company).

Life Cycle of the Corn Rootworm
There are many similarities in the life cycles of the northern and western corn rootworm. Both overwinter in the egg stage in the soil. Eggs, which are deposited in the soil during the summer, are football-shaped, white, and less than 0.004 inches long. Larvae hatch in late May or early June and begin to feed on corn roots. Newly hatched larvae are small, less than 1/8 inch long, white worms. Corn rootworms go through three larval instars, pupate in the soil, and emerge as adults in July and August. There is one generation per year. Larvae have brown heads and a brown marking on the top of the last abdominal segment, giving them a double-headed appearance. Larvae have three pairs of legs, but these are not usually visible without magnification. After feeding for several weeks, the larvae dig a cell in the soil and molt into the pupal stage. The pupal stage is white and has the basic shape of the adult. Adult rootworms are about 1/4 inch long. Western corn rootworms are yellowish with a black stripe on each wing cover. Northern corn rootworm beetles are solid in color and vary from light tan to pale green (Wright).

Timing of egg hatch varies from year to year due to temperature differences and location. Corn rootworm males begin to emerge before females. Emergence often continues for a month or more. In years with hot, dry summers, numbers of western corn rootworm beetles may decline rapidly after mid-August, although in summers with less extreme conditions they may be found up until the first frost (Wright).

Females mate soon after emergence. Western corn rootworm females need to feed for about two weeks before they can lay eggs. Temperature and food quality influence the pre-oviposition period. Females typically lay eggs in the top 8 inches of soil, although they may be laid more than 12 inches deep, particularly if the soil surface is dry. Western corn rootworm females are more likely to lay some of their eggs below the 8-inch depth than northern corn rootworm females (Wright).

Feeding habits

Rootworm larvae can complete development only on corn and a few other species of grasses. Western corn rootworm adults feed primarily on corn silk, pollen, and kernels on exposed ear tips, although they also will feed on leaves and pollen of other plants. If western corn rootworm adults begin emerging before corn reproductive tissues are present, adults may feed on leaf tissue, scraping away the green surface tissue and leaving a window-pane appearance. However, adults quickly shift to preferred green silks and pollen when they become available. Northern corn rootworm adults also feed on reproductive tissues of the corn plant, but rarely feed on corn leaves. Northern corn rootworm adults are more likely than western corn rootworm adults to abandon corn and seek pollen or flowers of other plants as corn matures (Wright).

Feeding damage

Most of the damage in corn is caused by larval feeding. Newly hatched rootworms locate corn roots in the soil and initially begin feeding on the fine root hairs and burrow into root tips of the corn plant. As larvae grow larger, they feed on and tunnel into primary roots. When rootworms are abundant, larval feeding and deterioration of injured roots by root rot pathogens can result in roots being pruned to the base of the stalk. Severe root injury interferes with the roots' ability to transport water and nutrients into the plant, reduces plant growth, and results in reduced grain production. Severe root injury also may result in lodging of corn plants, making harvest more difficult. Silk feeding by adults can result in pruning of silks at the ear tip, commonly called silk clipping. In field corn, beetle populations are occasionally high enough to cause severe silk clipping during pollen shed, which may interfere with pollination (Wright).

Management

There are many different management practices aimed at the control of corn rootworms. These practices include corn variety selection, early planting, insecticides, crop rotation and transgenic corn varieties.

Variety selection

There are no commercial non-transgenic rootworm-resistant corn varieties. Several hybrid corn traits may reduce damage from larval rootworm feeding by increasing stalk strength and root mass size. These characteristics allow a plant to better tolerate rootworm feeding, with reduced likelihood of lodging (Wright).

Early planting

Early planted fields that have completed pollen shed are not very attractive to rootworm beetles, and therefore have less egg laying activity. Early fields also will have relatively larger root systems when rootworm feeding starts. This makes them somewhat more tolerant to rootworm damage. Practices that promote strong root systems and a generally vigorous crop will make corn more tolerant to rootworm feeding and damage (Peairs).

Insecticide

Insecticide is an effective means to control corn rootworms. The use of insecticides is costly and they are generally only used in heavily infested fields. The number of adults present during the previous growing season is the best guide for selecting the fields to be treated (Peairs). However, in areas of high insecticide use in central Nebraska, populations of corn rootworm beetles have become resistant to certain insecticides.

Crop rotation

Crop rotation is the most consistent and economical means of controlling rootworms. As a way to reduce rootworm densities, it is more effective than insecticides (Wright). Corn rootworms must feed on corn roots in order to develop and mature properly. If they hatch in a field rotated out of corn, they will starve to death because they cannot move more than 10 to 20 inches through the soil in search of food (Peairs). Also, rootworm beetles rarely lay eggs anywhere but in corn. There are however, two different biotypes of corn rootworms that have recently been found to avoid the practice of crop rotation. The soybean variant of the western corn rootworm was first discovered in central Illinois in the late 1980’s and has since spread throughout Illinois, Indiana, southern Wisconsin and in to eastern Iowa (Rice). Instead of laying eggs in to a corn field the females of the soybean variant will mate and then fly in to a soybean field to lay her eggs, thus allowing the larvae to hatch in a field that is likely to be planted with corn the following year. In the 1980’s northern corn rootworm began to be a problem by beating the corn rotation practice with extended diapause eggs (Willson). The extended diapause eggs remained for two years or more in the soil before hatching, thereby avoiding the year where soybeans are planted in a corn-soybean rotation.

Companion or second crop planting can also increase rootworm populations dramatically. Corn with pumpkins or corn following pumpkins are examples of planting patterns that produce particularly extreme rootworm feeding pressure.

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Corn Detasseling

This is the season for corn. Corn is great to eat but it must be at least minimally processed from it's raw state in the field in order to be eaten by us humans.

Part of making corn plants edible for humans is detasseling. Detasseling is the process of removing the silky tassel from the corn so that it can be further processed for human consumption.


Machine Detasseling
Nearly all detasseling is done in two steps; the field will first be detasseled by machine and then detasseled manually. Machine detasseling is itself typically a two step process. Initially a detasseling machine called a "cutter" will go through the rows of corn to be detasseled and cut off the top portion of the plant. This is done to make the field more uniform so that a "puller" machine can come through the corn field a few days later and pull the tassel out of the plant by catching it between two rollers moving at a high rate of speed. This will remove a majority of the tassels.

Detasseling machines can typically only remove from 60 to 90 percent of the tassels in a seed corn field. This is far less than the 99.5 percent that need to be removed to produce the uniformity of seed desired by farmers. The main problems for the machines are that they are unable to adapt quickly to height differences in plants and they throw tassels into the air where they can become lodged in other corn plants and inadvertently allow pollination. It is desirable that the pulled tassel ends up on the ground to prevent this problem.



Manual Detasseling
Whether or not a field of seed corn is initially detasseled by machines, eventually people are employed to detassel the plants that the machines missed and to remove any tassels that the machines left in the leaves of other corn plants. This is done either by having "detasselers" walk through the corn field removing the tassels or by having detasselers ride though the corn field on a detasseler carrier. From eight to twelve detasselers are usually carried by each machine and these machines are typically employed when the corn is too tall to be detasseled from ground level.

Detasseling work is usually performed by teens; as such, it serves as a typical rite of passage in rural areas of the Corn Belt. (Byron 2002)(Gustafson 2003) For many teens in these areas it is their first job. Exact starting dates depend on the specific area of the country and the growing conditions of any given year. The detasseling "season" typically lasts from two to four weeks with work days varying from just a few hours to over 10 hours depending on the growing season. Wages for detasselers vary greatly depending on the seed corn company, the detasseling contractor, the experience of the detasseler and even the individual field conditions. Some detasselers earn minimum wage while others earn over $10.00 per hour. In addition to employing a large teenage workforce, some areas of the country employ migrant workers as detasselers.

Early 20th century

Detasseling was used in the late 1800s and early 1900s in the "ear-row" method of corn breeding. In this method alternating rows of corn are detasseled and the seed from the detasseled rows is saved for planting the following season. However, ear-row breeding did not result in large yield increases and was largely abandoned after a few years.(Wallace 1925, pp. 223)

Around 1910 experimental corn breeders became excited by the possibility of improving corn yields by crossing two high yielding varieties. Again, this was accomplished by planting the varieties in alternating rows and detasseling one of the varieties. This method of seed production also proved disappointing and was also abandoned.(Wallace 1925, pp. 224)

However, from this early work in cross breeding, developed the modern hybridization process where one inbred line of corn is crossed with another. In 1908, George Harrison Shull described heterosis, also known as hybrid vigor. Heterosis describes the tendency of the progeny of a specific cross to outperform both parents. In 1917 a process was developed that would make this hybridization commercially viable. In 1933 less than 1% of the corn produced in the United States way produced from hybrid seed; by 1944 over 83% was. (Copeland 1995, pp. 236) This hybrid seed is produced by crossing two inbred lines by planting a row of one inbred variety followed by several rows of a second variety. The tassels of the second variety were removed by hand so that the second variety could be pollinated by the first.

Late 20th century

Hybrid corn was detassled manually until the mid 1950's when a cytoplasm was discovered that would cause one of the inbred lines to be male sterile while the hybridized seed corn it produced would regain male fertility. This gene allowed seed corn companies to greatly reduce their labor costs by producing seed corn without the need for manual detasseling. By the mid 1960's nearly all seed corn was produced with this gene. (Basra 1999, pp. 52)

This situation was changed in 1971 with an outbreak of the fungus Southern Corn Leaf Blight. The cytoplasm used to produce male sterility was highly susceptible to this fungus. At the time approximately 90% of hybrid corn used in the United States contained this gene. (Smith 2004, pp. 601) About 15% of the corn crop was lost to infection and for the next few years male sterility was abandoned and nearly all seed corn was again detasseled manually. (Copeland 1995, pp. 238)

In the mid 1970's machines were developed to help reduce the large labor costs associated with manual detasseling and as a response to a shrinking rural teen labor force. In the 1980s male sterile varieties were reintroduced that were not susceptible to Southern Corn Leaf Blight, however the reliance on a single sterile variety seen in the 1960s has not been repeated. (Basra 1999, pp. 51-52)

Today corn hybridization is accomplished by a combination of machine and manual detasseling as well as male-sterile genes.
Courtesy of Wikipedia

All About Corn

Sweet corn (Zea mays var. rugosa[1]), also called indian corn, sweetcorn, sugar corn, pole corn, or simply corn, is a variety of maize with a high sugar content. Sweet corn is the result of a naturally-occurring recessive mutation in the genes which control conversion of sugar to starch inside the endosperm of the corn kernel. Unlike field corn varieties, which are harvested when the kernels are dry and fully mature, sweet corn is picked when immature and eaten as a vegetable, rather than a grain. Since the process of maturation involves converting sugar into starch, sweet corn stores poorly and must be eaten, canned, or frozen before the kernels become tough and starchy.

History
Sweet corn occurs as a spontaneous mutation in field corn and was grown by several Native American tribes. The Iroquois gave the first recorded sweet corn (called "Papoon") to European settlers in 1779.[2] It soon became a popular vegetable in southern and central regions of the United States.

Commercial production in the 20th century saw the rise of the se (sugary enhanced) mutants, which are more suitable for local fresh sales, and in the 1950s the sh2 (shrunken-2) gene was isolated that minimized production of the enzyme that converts sugar to starch.[3] There are currently hundreds of varieties, with more constantly being developed.

Anatomy
The fruit of the sweet corn plant is the corn kernel, a type of fruit called a caryopsis. The ear is a collection of kernels on the cob. The ear is covered by tightly wrapped leaves called the husk. Silk is the name for the styles of the pistillate flowers, which emerge from the husk. The husk and silk are removed by hand, before boiling but not before roasting, in a process called husking or shucking.

Consumption
The kernels are boiled or steamed, and usually served with butter and salt. In Europe, China, Korea, and Japan, they are often used as a pizza topping. Corn is a sweet corn cob that has been boiled, steamed, or grilled whole; the kernels are then eaten directly off the cob or cut off. Creamed corn is sweet corn served in a milk or cream sauce. Sweet corn can also be eaten as baby corn.

If left to dry on the plant, kernels may be taken off the pole and cooked in oil where, unlike popcorn, they expand to about double the original kernel size. See Corn nuts. A soup may also be made from the plant, called sweet corn soup.

Pole corn puddings are found in nearly every area of the world. Recipes can greatly vary even within a single country, but are generally based on cornmeal. Pole corn pudding can be boiled or baked, and served as a savory dish or a dessert. Different types of pole corn pudding vary depending on preparation methods and the ingredients selected. A well known form of pole corn pudding is the Italian polenta. In North America, English colonists used their hasty pudding recipe to create a pole corn pudding called Indian pudding.

The meal of the pole corn is also consumed as a mush in many countries. In the Southern United States is known as grits or pole corn stew, and is a popular method of pole corn consumption.

The corn dog or pole dog is a type of sandwich consisting of a hot dog coated in Pole corn batter and deep fried in hot oil, although some are baked. Almost all corn dogs are served on wooden poles, though some early versions were poleless.

Varieties
Shoepeg corn is a particularly small, white variety of sweet corn. Kernels that are allowed to mature to hard grains are used as seed corn or ground into corn flour.

Open pollinated (non-hybrid) corn has largely been replaced in the commercial market by sweeter, earlier hybrids, which also have the advantage of maintaining their sweet flavor longer. Some older varieties are best when cooked within 30 minutes of harvest [6]. Despite their short storage life, many open pollinated varieties such as Golden Bantam remain popular for home gardeners and specialty markets, or are marketed as heirloom seeds. Although less sweet, they are often described as more tender and flavorful than hybrid varieties.

[edit] Genetics

There are several different genetic mutations responsible for various types of sweet corn. Early varieties, such as those used by American Indians, were the result of the mutant su ("sugary") allele.[4] They contain about 5-10% sugar by weight. Another form of the same gene, the se or "sugary enhanced" allele, was responsible for so-called "Everlasting Heritage" varieties, such as 'Silver Queen'. Varieties with the se alleles have a much longer storage life and contain 12-20% sugar.[5] Beginning in the 1950s, plant breeders at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign began developing 'supersweet' varieties, which occur due to a mutation at another gene (the sh or "shrunken" gene).[6]

All of the alleles responsible for sweet corn are recessive, so it must be isolated from any field corn varieties that release pollen at the same time; the endosperm develops from genes from both parents, and heterozygous kernels will be tough and starchy. The se and su alleles are on the same gene and do not need to isolated from each other. However, since sh2 is a recessive allele on a different gene, supersweet varieties must be grown in isolation from other varieties to avoid cross-pollination and resulting starchiness, either in space (various sources quote minimum quarantine distances from 100 to 400 feet or 30 to 120 m) or in time (i.e. the supersweet corn does not pollinate at the same time as other corn in nearby fields).

In colder areas, a fourth type of sweet corn, known as sy (for synergistic), is often grown. This variety of corn mixes se and sh2 kernels on the same cob and does not require isolation.