RE: Re: CORN GRASS

[Guest guest]

Hi Whitney,

Your post sometime ago was so interesting that I want to tell you my

experience which happened only yesterday. I sowed organic popcorn kernels last

week in an organic soil in my backyard. After about a week the corn grass grew

about 4-5 inches. It was beautiful green. I made juice of it in a blender by

adding some water, strained it and I and my wife drank about 100 ml. each. It

was sweet in taste but the feel in mouth was that of wheat grass which we don't

relish. Every thing was o.k till after one hr. when we both had a strange

feeling in the stomach leading to severe nausea. I must tell you we both are

healthy and don't require any medicine. We had to throw up three times and every

half an hr. with horrible feeling in the stomach. Since we had taken sparse

breakfast, as usual, about 2 hrs. ago, nothing much was to come out. Then there

was empty retching. The nausea was persistent, with disgust of food and no

thirst. Once the stomach was empty and had nothing left to

throw up we took the homoeopathic remedy Ipecac. - 30 just one drop on the

tongue. It worked as magic and we were restored to normalcy within an hour.

Now my question is why all this happened? About a year ago I took wheat grass

juice but nothing of this sort occurred. I am sure you must be able to throw

some light to guide all members of the forum. I have got oat grass, sorghum

grass 5 in. tall ready for juice but I am afraid of being in the same plight.

Which grasses or plants have you used for juices, as salads, or as pickles?

I will be grateful to you if you kindly spare some time and enlighten us.

With best wishes

Gopal

Whitney Larsen <wlarsen@...> wrote:

I'm using the popcorn kernels from the Sproutpeople website.

I cannot remember the name of the mold, but I did have it identified as

harmless. It's one of the molds that help to fix nitrogen in legumous

plants. Drives me nuts that I can't remember what it's called.

Growing corn shoots in the dark so they don't green up gives the shoots

several culinary advantages. Greening corn shoots causes them to toughen

and get rather woody even at a very young stage. When the shoots are raised

in darkness the stems and leaves have that nice, romaine-lettuce-like, crisp

texture. Too much chlorophyll development gives them an unpleasant

woodiness like over-matured asparagus.

Also, the bright yellow color of un-greened corn shoots is highly desirable

to chefs as a plate garnish. Given what my customers pay for my product,

they want to get as much visual bang as possible. A small cluster of

brilliant chartreuse, broad-leaved " grass " on top a dish is far more

exciting than the same cluster of green. There are so many green foods, but

not many that are so bright a shade of yellow. It's the same reason I can

charge lots more for opal basil (purple-black) micro-greens than I can for

Genovese basil, and why the most oddly-colored heirloom tomatoes fetch

premium prices. People eat first with their eyes.

Alas, in my little corner of the world, sprouting has nothing to do with

getting the most healthful sprouts possible. I have to concern myself with

raising the most marketable product. All of what I grow (except tomatoes

and pea tendrils) is meant only to dress up high-end restaurant fare, and

not as a main component of a meal. As such, the nutritive content isn't a

big deal. Taste, texture, and visual appeal are my priorities.

I'd be interested in seeing what impact greening the shoots has on nutritive

content, however.

_____

From: [mailto: ] On

Behalf Of sunnyj344

Sent: Monday, July 30, 2007 11:06 AM

Subject: Re: Moldy corn shoots

I just happened to read an article about mold on wheatgrass on the

Sproutman's website (www.sproutman.com <http://www.sproutma

<http://www.sproutman.com> n.com> ) and

how most of it isn't harmful; perhaps your mold is in a similar

category? Question, when you grow your corn shoots, do you expose them

to light to green them up or do you keep them in the dark? I saw an

article about corn shoots in the UK and apparently they prefer to grow

them without exposing them to light. I would think they would be

healthier for you if they were allowed to green up? And also, what kind

of corn seeds do you use?

Thanks!!

>

> I'm having trouble with my corn shoots. There is a dense layer of

> white fuzzy mold on the surface of the vermiculite growing medium.

> I'm using the same growing medium for all my microgreens, but the

> problem is unique to the corn shoots. I started a new batch of corn

> just to see if the first one somehow got contaminated, but the new

> batch started to show the same mold.

>

> The shoots themselves are mold-free (it shows no signs of being

> harmful to the shoots) and appear quite healthy. They are only a

> week old but already about 6 " tall.

>

> I know some household molds are completely innocuous (like the green

> and white fuzzy molds that form on bread and cheese). I know soil

> is chock-a-block with molds, fungus, bacteria... I also know that

> it is completely safe to eat the white and green fuzzy molds that

> sometimes grow on bread and cheese (in ServSafe restaurant safety

> certification programs they teach that you should cut away 1 " around

> white and green mold for cosmetic reasons, but that the molds are in

> facct harmless. If you have black mold, however, you should discard

> the whole product).

>

> What say you? Should I toss my corn shoots, or simply cut them an

> inch above the mold layer, wash well and enjoy?

>

> In the future, is there something I can use to prevent this mold

> from popping up on the rest of the corn shoots?

>