I Say Smut, You Say Truffle

You may be wondering what has become of the crop circle project. I got the corn planted, but never the other sisters: beans and squash (although we have them elsewhere). However, close to 50 tomatoes from incomplete composting (never reaching 140 degrees) came up as the unexpected sister. There you go--more accidental gardening. Next year I suggest we just spread our compost over everything and forget planting.

Farmer Rick just came in telling me some of our Oaxacan Green Dent Corn was exploding open with kernels like long fingers filled with black icky stuff. I had to go check it out.

Sure enough he was not exaggerating. Some of the cobs did indeed look alien with swollen gray kernels...

growing as big as my thumb and as long as fingers...

filled with something looking like chewed up tobacco. Totally gross!!!

We bravely unwrapped a couple of the closed cobs to discover relatively normal looking dent ears in milk stage, but not looking green at all like they should. Maybe dent corn doesn't get it's true color until later?

Anyway, we got ourselves some smut, Corn Smut to be exact! Ustilago maydis, to be exact-er.

It's a pathogenic plant fungus that during times of drought enters the plants ovaries and replaces the normal kernels of the cobs with these large distorted tumors filled with fungal threads and blue-black spores.

Most American farmers destroy the infected plants (um, my thoughts exactly!) but in our neighboring Mexico, it is considered a delicacy! Yup, it's sold in cans called huitlacoche, a Nahuatl (Aztec descendant) word meaning raven's excrement. Mmm, appetizing! ...not! There's been a movement to rename it Mexican Truffle. See how a little marketing can spin something?

As a vegetarian I eat a delicious product called Quorn (suspiciously pronounced Corn) made out of mycoprotein...now I'm beginning to wonder, could there be a connection here?

I don't think I want to find out.