2013 Crop Report December 20 2013
From Deep in the Mountains of Montana:
Our mobile seed operation had a banner year. We relocated our primary crop to a 5000 foot valley far from any GMO encroachments. The glaciated, highly mineralized topsoil coupled with abundant irrigation water yielded an outstanding crop of vigorous seed adapted to our rigorous growing conditions.
Seed ears are now typically 10 to 16 inches long with larger kernels and more rows per ear than ever before. We find fewer anomalies due to our relentless culling of sub-standard ears. Only the best are used for seed—all the smaller stuff ends up in the kitchen for personal consumption.
We overcame many challenges with this crop. Each growing season is different and we learn something new every time. This year we had too much rain at the end of the summer. Strong winds blew down swaths through the field and we were besieged with critters that could have wrecked havoc. Fortunately, the local deer and assorted livestock that kept getting loose from their pens had never seen corn before and it took them a while to figure it out. With the unseasonable rain in August, the whole valley stayed green so the animals had other diversions.
We took a calculated risk at the new location with a large unfenced field. It was watered by an overhead irrigation system that delivered more water than we had ever had access to before. We wanted the crop to dry in the field but the weather had other ideas, so I built a new on-site corn crib to store the crop while waiting for the showers to taper off.
Finally in September as the weather turned cooler with the first snow in the mountains and the blackbirds gathering into larger flocks, the whitetail deer started moving in at night. We mustered the family for an all-night harvest vigil and set up in tents on the perimeter of the field to keep the deer out. Sure enough, after dark a storm came rolling down out of the mountains, blew down tents, and dumped more rain.
Undeterred, we were up at dawn and proceeded to harvest the entire field over a period of two days. We shucked the ears in the field and wheel-barrowed them to a garage where they were spread out on wood pallets and wire screen to finish drying. The free-range chickens soon discovered the garage full of corn along with the usual mice. The losses were modest and not wholly unexpected.
Come Halloween, there was enough snow in the mountains for a wind-slab avalanche to catch some early back-country skiers. Down below, the corn was dry enough to transfer to the airy, rodent-proof corn crib. Then, the winter storms came early and severe. We kept waiting for a break in the weather over the holidays when family members were available to shell some corn but it never happened so we waited and made plans for a new paypal-free web site.
Fortunately, we had a mid-January chinook of mild and sunny weather that allowed us to hand-shell and winnow a few hundred pounds of seed before winter returned with snow, wind and minus 30 temperatures for a week. Finally, it got back up to zero and felt like a heat wave—just like the old-fashioned winters that used to kill off the pine-bark beetles and keep the yuppies away.
The new seed tested out at a 97-98% germination rate and despite several radioactive snowfalls testing double and triple normal background, our seed tested negative for alpha, beta and gamma emitters. We call it Fukashima-Free Seed. This is the 5th generation of seed that has been under our total control without exposure to any other corn pollen as a possible GMO contaminant.
In retrospect, the total loss in 2012 of a 2 acre crop in another county due to drought was a blessing in disguise as we subsequently found that a nearby farmer was growing DuPont-Pioneer GMO corn for his dairy herd. We learned to stay far away from any university agriculture crops and experimental stations as these big-ag scientists and biologists have been funded for decades to do clandestine GMO research by the GM seed cartels such as Monsanto, DuPont-Pioneer, Syngenta, DowAgroSciences, BASE PlantScience, Bayer CropScience and their ilk.
All in all, we are grateful to have made it through another year and are very pleased with this 2013 crop that, in our opinion, takes Painted Mountain Corn to another level. This crop was only possible through the help of new friends and family who took a chance and sponsored this venture on their organic farm.
As we approach the critical growing season of 2014 in the northern hemisphere, we are eager to share the rich bounty of this priceless seed with those of you who are determined to develop an independent food supply, free from the tentacles of a leviathan that threatens our life and sustenance as a free people.
We salute you for your service to the Flame of Liberty,
New Ordnance and the RockyMountainCorn.com family