My Corn History Essay
Welcome to my world, I’m head of Corn; I 'm sweet and delicious. My history is as important today as it was to Native Americans thousands of years ago. I’m a very popular food and my original form as food, corn now Repeated Stem in nearly 4,000 industrial products. It is a renewable industrial resource, and scientists are still finding new uses for us.
Native Americans used all parts of our plant. The husks of my body are made for sleeping mats, children’s dolls, and ceremonial masks; my stalks and cobs were used for fuel. Our young corn was used as a fresh vegetable and our elderly mature kernels of corn were ground into flour. The flour is used for different items, including my favorite of corn tortillas. We began as a wild grass called
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In the 16th century, we were adopted as a food source in Africa, India and China. We were an essential food source to the Pilgrims during their first winter in America. The Native Americans provided them with our corn to keep them from starving and in the spring, showed them how to grow us and how to prepare our cornmeal and bake corn bread. What was fascinating is that we remained the staple starch of the colonists for nearly 200 years.
When we were introduced to Europe, it was considered a garden curiosity. However, we quickly became recognized as a valuable food crop for humans and livestock. We were often planted with beans and squash. This combination was called “The Three Sisters.” Our corn stalk provided a trestle for bean vines to grow on. The beans added nitrogen to the soil. Squash with its broad, spreading leaves kept the moisture in the soil from evaporating and crowded out plants that would compete with the corn for nutrients. An Indian name for corn was MA-HIZ, which the early settlers in the Americas began to call maize.
So as you can see, a head of corn has been around for many years. We are sweet and delicious and used in a variety of industrial products. When we are placed in a pot with butter, we pop, and we have been called popcorn which people eat at the movies. People eat us, on and off the cob, and we are popular with
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