These five ears of corn were grown in a garden on Iliff Street
in Wray, Colorado. They were planted in June 2009, and the ears were taken
from the plants on September 25, 2009 by me.

I received the original seeds from Laina Coit of Simla Colorado in 2001.
Her account of their discovery and subsequent cultivation is as follows:

"The corn was found by Grey Antelope, a poker buddy of my friend's
father. He found it in a cave in the Four Corners region and said all
indications pointed to the seed being around 500 years old. My friend's
mother grew the corn until she died. It had been a dozen years since her
mother's last crop when my friend shared her last seed with me. She planted
hers at her house near 24th and Newton St. in Denver, I planted mine in
Simla. Just before the ears were ripe enough to bear viable seed, all her
corn plants were destroyed. It was either children in the corn or raccoons.
That was my first ever attempt to grow corn; I had twelve plants and got at
least one good ear from each."

Since I knew little about the scientific germination and growing of corn
from seed stock, and in view of the uniqueness of these seeds, I sought the
help of experienced people to cultivate them during the 2009 season with the
object of creating a pool of new seeds of this ancient and genetically
unadulterated strain for future agricultural and scientific use.
That has now been accomplished and the seeds proved viable.
Will be thinking about 2010 season plantings...

e-mail queries