Descending from 70 rugged native North American heirloom Indian corns, Painted Mountain is a ro-bust, multi-purpose, high-protein and highly nutritional food corn. Dave Christensen began its cultivation over 50 years ago, to feed his homesteader family in the challenging climates of Montana. Delicious as a green corn, the kernel’s soft starch grinds easily for fine-baking and the tenderest cornbread. Painted Mountain is known for fast maturity, resiliency in drought and recovery from climate stress. Its ancestors kept Montana homesteaders alive through The Great Drought & Depression of the 1930’s. This naturally diverse, open-pollinated corn can adapt to varied and changing climates. Small farmers, in the desert and mountainous regions of the world, grow Painted Mountain corn year after year.
When I grew Painted Mountain corn in 2016, I photographed its progress. Inspired to share the adventure of cultivating corn in a small garden—and to make a plan to grow it next spring—I send this story to you.
In April 2016, prompted by the interest of a fellow plant adventurer, I reached for a quart jar of Painted Mountain corn kernels that I had put in my cupboard about 10 years earlier. I had intended to grind the mix of ruby red, blue, violet, yellow, and white kernels into flour ages earlier. I wasn’t optimistic about it as seed, but he was, so I gave him half and dumped my half into a sprouting jar, thinking I would eat it if it sprouted. When every kernel sprouted, I was overwhelmed with respect for the Montana farmer Dave Christensen, who developed Painted Mountain. I couldn’t eat it. I had to plant the corn! But it was the end of April! I hadn’t seen the planting instructions that are now published on the website. “Plant the kernels directly into a well-prepared seedbed, May 15 or earlier (bred to recover from early frosts).”
On May 2, I sowed the extraordinary sprouted seed outdoors. The plants came up. The thermometer dipped into the 20s, and they survived without protection. There was very little rainfall. I watered very rarely. The flowering plants delivered on the promise of ears of colorful “green,” or fresh, corn to eat off the cob and ears to dry on the stalk for ornament and grinding into flour.
