Agricultural Story #23

Hi everyone!
You are welcome to my Story. I decided to write about a popular plant in agriculture called Maize or Corn. It 🌽 has become one of the most produced grains globally. It is also very popular in food and feed manufacturing/processing and in pharmaceutical industries.
Nutrition-wise, maize is high in natural sugar content, carbohydrates and gluten. It contains vitamin B, fiber( this helps in digestion and can also be helpful when constipated).
Maize prevents hunger by keeping one full for a longer time after eating it than other grains e.g rice.
Because of it minerals like magnesium, zinc, copper, iron and manganese, it is a good antioxidants source. It improves gut and eye health.
It's scientific name is Zea Mays. In Nigeria, Hausa name for it is Masara, Igbo call it òka while in Yoruba it name is àgbado. Other tribes also coin their names for the plant.
Zea mays has a long and rich history. Starting as a wild grass planted in Mexico, it was first seen as domestic plant and cultivated by indigens over 7,000 years ago. Also, through travelling merchants maize spread throughout the Americas and then around the world. Corn has recently become one of the most important food/feed crops globally, tracing their origins to the work of early indigenous farmers in producing a varieties of maize that are well-adapted. Maize truly has a remarkable story. It is grown in over 180million hactares around the globe.

Varieties

There are many varieties of maize depending on the purpose of planting. This include:

Dent corn:

It's grain contains soft starch crumbs which are less densely packed than in other types of maize. This causes the shrinking of the starch within the outer layer of the grain. The grains also feature a kind of deep notch on the edge at the distal tip.
Dent maize is either yellow or white grain. Other varieties are;

Floury maize, Flint maize, Popcorn,

Sweet maize:-

This is the variety I cultivated, valued for its sweet flavour. A variety which has a higher sugar content than all the other types, and it is usually boiled or canned.

I planted it in the month of March and it's maturity took two to three months.
[planting]

By the end of May, the corn were matured for harvest.
[matured maize plant]

Here is how I harvested by selecting the matured ones whose tassel and ears have turned brown in colour. Thereafter, I dehusked to reveal the seeds on the cobs.

[tassel turns brown and dried]

[the ears also turn brown and dried]

[selecting matured maize to be harvested]

[dehusked maize revealing seeds and cobs]

Boiled maize can be served with dried/fresh coconut(Cocos nucifera) or roasted/boiled pear(Dacryodes edulis).

[after washing it is put in a pot ready to be boiled]

[boiling takes 20-30minutes]

[The corn is done and it is removed from the hot water]

[ it is ready to be eaten with pear or coconut]

Join me in this joyful harvest. How pleasant it is to witness a bountiful harvest which proofs that one's labour is not in vain!
Surely, there is dignity in labour.

I am inviting @ninapenda, @udyliciouz and @supportive to join this contest

All pictures taken by me with NokiaC30