To piggyback on the corn commentary, Chef Alex is also growing another special corn on a plot down the road from our farm. On a 1/3 of an acre on land owned by his wife’s family (the Arnold’s), he started by growing winter rye last fall. (Another neat thing about the land itself is that it has been farmed by the Arnold family for almost 200 years! Talk about sustainability!) The rye helps by making the nutrients in the soil more available to the plants sown. He since has tilled it and added young horse manure (nitrogen rich!). The variety of corn is called Mandan Bride and it comes to us from Seed Savers, a seed bank that preserves heirlooms in Iowa. Mandan Bride is orginally from the Northern Plain Native Americans in Minnesota. Traditionally, Minnesota was a huge grain producer, and it is really neat that we will be tapping into that history. It is also special because it is a true heirloom, one that is a pure breed that is connected to a native culture. That is a huge foundation for all of our work here at the farm. Chef chose the plot because it is farther away from surrounding corn fields that grow GMO laden corn. This is important when growing an heirloom corn because you have to be cautious of germination or cross breeding. You want the crop to preserve its heirloom status by remaining a pure breed. This corn is just the first of many adventures in corn for us at Cornman Farms. We have found over 42 different varietals that trace back to Michigan, and we will be experimenting with them in the coming seasons. Our goal is to eventually produce enough corn (and wheat) to grind our own cornmeal and make the Roadhouse Rye from ingredients grown less than 15 miles away. That is HUGE! To potentially take a product that is fabulous (Roadhouse Rye from the Bakehouse) and make it even better by putting our local organic footprint on it would be amazing. So, putting the corn in Cornman is kind of a big deal to all of us.