#a124 :: Miniature Indian corn

In the vast pantheon of American kitsch (and it is vast), recipe the significance of miniature “Indian corn” just baffles me.

Farmers cultivate the basic (full-sized) species to sell to craft stores and maybe florists. Yet here’s a tinier – cuter? – version for the express purpose of … what?

I’ve never had the pleasure of eating it – no one ever sells it fresh – but I have to wonder: Did this country marginalize because yellow and white corn species were considered sweeter? Purer?

What would it taste like if you slapped the farmer’s hand before he signed the deal with Michael’s, and forced him to take it to market so that you could shuck it, grill it and slather it with butter?

It’s a mystery. A small, one, I’ll grant you. But a mystery – to me, at least.