Whole flour corn, various, not at seed prices

March 6, 2023 6:59 AM

I want to buy flour corn to grind at home in quantities between 5 and 25 pounds.

I particularly liked Oaxacan green flour corn, until the farm I knew about went under. I’d rather not buy seed corn, though I suppose for the right price I’ll do the final cleaning myself. Any recommendations?

posted by clew to Food & Drink (13 answers total)

It looks like the biggest bags they sell retail are 5 pounds, but Three Sisters Nixtamal has white, yellow, and blue corn available to ship, and they are legit.
posted by outfielder at 7:35 AM on March 6, 2023

I have emailed a seller before and asked for a larger quantity of something than they typically sold retail, and gotten a much better deal because they didn't have to do all the extra packaging.

If I were you, I would find 1-2 local farmers who sells at the farmer's market or offers a CSA and tell them you'd like to be a regular customer for Oaxacan green flour corn. Offer to give them the seed corn if needed. I have had an impact on more than one local farmer's garlic production, so I know it can work. Corn is a little harder than garlic, I think, due to cross-pollination, but you probably have a local farmer who will go for it.
posted by aniola at 8:22 AM on March 6, 2023

I got mine from a local farmer that sells in small quantities at the farmer's market. I bought a few cups of corn that I liked, then I asked if I could buy a 25lb bag as a special order. We worked out a price and then I picked up it up at the farm.

Sure, you could buy something to ship, but it's nice to shop local. I don't know where you are but even most cities have farmer's markets - it's worth a visit to ask.
posted by epanalepsis at 8:54 AM on March 6, 2023

I’m not in a flour corn climate.
posted by clew at 9:25 AM on March 6, 2023

I looked up your location and I'm not convinced that's exactly true. I lived in the same climate and when I first moved there, I thought the region only produced green tomatoes. But it turns out there are short-season seeds that have been bred for the local climate. You just have to be super on top of the timing. But any farmer in your region already knows that. Here is one example landrace flour corn seed, and if there's one, there's more than one. Even just the folks I linked to sell other short-season flour corns.

So if growing local flour corn is something you did want to pursue, there really might be local farmers interested in the project.
posted by aniola at 9:51 AM on March 6, 2023

I now work in local organic farming and have heard farmers working with, for instance, Portlands Three Sisters, discussing the state of PNW flour corn development at the Cascadia Grain Conference and I would like to buy dried flour corn, as I asked.
posted by clew at 10:02 AM on March 6, 2023

Try this shop? Or similar co-op type places. They probably won't have the Oaxacan green corn you're after, but they could probably ask around and see who has it or might be able to direct your search. I bought their blue corn atole meal for a Navajo cookalong a few weeks ago.

Or Masienda?

Or this place? My search terms were "Oaxacan green dent corn for grinding ", gave me a few extra results vs Oaxacan green corn.
posted by OhHaieThere at 8:46 AM on March 9, 2023

That’ll do it!

Bewildered that all my searches got was seed stock, grateful for your help.

If anyone wants my grandmother’s recipe for cornbread in a cast iron pan, I’ll post it.
posted by clew at 11:40 AM on March 9, 2023

Yes please!
posted by aniola at 12:29 PM on March 9, 2023

Oil a cast iron pan (mine is 11" by 2" deep and slightly larger than this recipe needs). Preheat it to 375dF.

Mix well:
2 c buttermilk (or unsweetened yogurt)
2 eggs
More oil for richer bread, up to 1/2 cup

Separately, mix very well:
2 cups meal (about 250g)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Pour into hot pan, bake 45 minutes. It will have browned on top and pulled away from the pan slightly.

Tipping it out of the pan to cool keeps the bottom crust maximally crunchy, but it should be fine eaten from the pan.

I find the texture (crumbly dense) works with vegan alternatives. Their flavors come through, so pick ones that go well together.
———-

This is my grandmother’s modernized version of her grandmother’s recipe, which I don’t have. She was picky about using White Cat meal; that was from the White Lily regional mills and probably fresh as well as suitable.

Corn goes rancid once ground, because of the oil; fresh ground it has no bitterness, can be sweet depending on the corn, and still has a faint vegetable or grassy fragrance, like any grain can. Hence my hunt for it in whole kernels!
posted by clew at 1:13 PM on March 9, 2023

@clew White Lily the cornmeal brand? We have their self raising meal near me, is that the same producer?

I probably get bonus recipe and ingredient searches bc the algorithm knows I'm all about those things lol.

This recipe looks like the one on the side of the Moss fine cornmeal bag I picked up at the state fair, and it was AMAZING. Looking forward to trying your grandma's!
posted by OhHaieThere at 1:33 PM on March 9, 2023

The White Lily mills — yes, that’s the one! They’ve moved the mill since my grandmother passed so I don’t have her exact endorsement, but. And the self-rising buttermilk cornbread mix looks like it’s aiming at this dish. (Literally - the illustration on the bag.)

Having a fussy foodie moment, note that there’s both malted grain and high-starch flour in there — I suspect sweetened cornbread is often a response to the (subtle) bitterness of cornmeal that isn’t fresh.

(Not that I don’t drench it in jam or honey or molasses. But it shouldn’t need them. Until flour production is different you have to be a real enthusiast to grind your own though.)
posted by clew at 1:58 PM on March 9, 2023

@clew yep, the malted barley and wheat flour both also add gluten to an otherwise inherently gluten-free item, and in this case make the product more tender and in line with commercial cornbread mixes (ex: jiffy) vs traditional cornmeal. It's a... flavor safety bumper if you will... against that bitterness you're talking about. Especially the malted barley flour, but I'll save that for someone's future AskMe since it's kinda off topic here haha. This sorta stuff is my ~jam~

On the plus side, it's enriched with iron and B vitamins, which in the grand scheme of industrial food history wasn't always the case with grain products and only recently (~2016) became common for corn- and maize-based meals in the United States; this was aimed at reducing neural tube defects and improving folic acid and iron status in folks who primary consume corn versus wheat in this country. So... A win there!
posted by OhHaieThere at 2:13 PM on March 9, 2023