Green Corn Moon
Happy Green Corn Moon!
During the Augusts of my childhood, we picnicked at a farm west of Aurora. At some point during the picnic, I’d find myself wandering through a cornfield – looking for lost baseballs, hoping to find arrowheads, and locating only a strange kind of lostness among the tall, leafy stalks of corn.
I never found an arrowhead, which the owner of the farm reported she found frequently when the plow turned the soil over revealing its secrets. As a child, I didn’t inquire why there were so many arrowheads in what was then a cornfield. I just wanted to find one – find a fragment of the past, which I understood little about.
About a half dozen years ago, I found myself with two squirmy children standing in the shady Ethnobotanical Garden in the City of Oaxaca. We were learning about the exquisite and tasty biodiversity of southern Mexico, which the Garden sought to preserve, in addition to educating visitors on the unimaginable gifts we have received from this part of the world. If you like chili peppers, you have Mexico and its people to thank for propagating all of them! All chili peppers originated there. But, it was while gazing down at a knee high, grass-like plant (not unlike the stilt grass in my forest garden) that the docent explained that the little pod she held in her hand, that contained a row of seeds, resembling shriveled peas, was Teosinte, an ancestor of corn.
My mind was blown. Here I was staring at the past – a living history. I was and still am mystified how humans living in Southern Mexico 6,000-10,000 years ago worked with this plant – saw these tiny seeds as food – and worked with them to create corn. It was wonderful and awe inspiring. From this humble plant we have the towering stalks that blanket the midwest today, swallowing baseballs.
Of course, there were hundreds of varieties of corn propagated – with varying flavors and uses. Corn that could survive through changes in climate, too. Today, Oaxacans are working hard to save as much of this biodiversity as they can. And if you visit Oaxaca you can taste a variety of corn, in varying colors and flavors, still being cooked and eaten. There are even restaurants that feature corn. And if you go to Oaxaca, go hungry. It’s some of the best food I’ve ever eaten.
Okay, my mighty corn, I salute you! This moon is your moon! Grow tall and sweet, and may we honor you and preserve you as you have nourished us for thousands of years!