Property News · January 29, 2017

It's sweetcorn, but not as you've seen it before


A new generation of corn comes in different flavours and dazzling colours, says James Wong, and they are even easier to grow, tooPlant breeders are capable of amazing things. Take sweetcorn: since the early 20th century new techniques have been able to jack up the sugar content of this staple veg by an astonishing tenfold, creating supersweet varieties whose kernels are approaching 50% pure sucrose. Yet corn has so much more to offer than intense, one-dimensional sweetness. There’s a new generation of equally delicious savoury corn varieties with different flavours, dazzling colours and even superior performance in the garden. And it’s high time we gave them a go.The ubiquitous supersweet varieties are based on a single genetic mutation that partially disables the ability of the developing kernels to convert sugars produced by the plant into the stores of starch that fuel the growth of new seedlings. This means that the intense sweetness of these varieties comes at a price for gardeners: their lack of energy reserves means they have lower germination rates and are more susceptible to fungal and bacterial infections, particularly in cold, wet climates like the UK. Sound familiar? This same mutation hampers the ability of the crop to produce the aroma chemicals that create that “corny” flavour, making for a sugary, yet otherwise comparatively bland flavour on tricky-to-grow plants. Continue reading…

Source : theguardian.com
Read more…It’s sweetcorn, but not as you’ve seen it before

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