"Felipe" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Wayne Lundberg" > wrote in message
> ...
> > I'm reading a fabulous book "1491" by Charles Mann.... there is a
> > statement
> > that maize will not propagate without human intervention. Further, there
> > is
> > no genetic antecedent which makes one a believer in Divine Intervention.
> >
> > Add to this, that maize is really not a full nutrient unless treated
with
> > lie overnight? And who would have had that doctor in chemistry some
6,000
> > years ago when maize gave birth to the Olmec and Tlatilco cultures?
> >
> > Wayne... forever in quest of the Garden of Eden in the Americas and why
it
> > was lost. (not to mention a good taco!)
>
> You're all mixed up. Maize is descended from teosinthe). And you can eat
> it with or without lye process.
>
> you can eat it right off the stalk in fact. wet and good.
>
> los dos felipes
> >

For sure, elotes from street vendors are some of my favorite things to eat
when in Mexico. A sprinkling of chile powder and off you go!

I remember harvesting our maize on the ranch in Veracruz once it had dried
on the stalk, and the beans and squash harvested too. We dumped the dried
ears into a large room and every day we'd take out the dried leaves from the
cob, run the cob through a kind of grinder that rubbed the kernels into a
pan, which went directly to the kitchen where water was added. Then once
heated, lie would be added and left overnight. Next morning onto the metate
to be ground into the most delicisious tortillas on earth!

I can see an advantage of an inpenetrable husk. Ancient Sumarians had to
store their grain in clay pots. No clay pots needed with maize!

Adios!