How to Grow Corn for Cornmeal: Self-Sufficient Homesteading
Did you know that you can grow your own cornmeal in your backyard? Although it does take space, flour corn is one of my favorite crops to grow! Keep reading if you’d like to learn how to grow corn for cornmeal!
How to Grow Corn for Cornmeal
If you have been daunted by the idea of growing wheat at home without special equipment, corn is a great substitute. Popular with Native Americans and early American settlers, corn is easy to grow without special equipment, and you can easily grow enough in a garden for some cornbread or Johnny cakes (corn pancakes). Plus, it’s gluten free!
Corn doesn’t need special equipment to remove the hulls like other grains. I grind mine into cornmeal with a simple $20 hand crank grinder (you can find a link below).
What Kind of Corn to Grow for Cornmeal
Rather than a sweet corn variety, you’ll want to find a variety of field corn for cornmeal. Field corns include flint corn, dent corn and flour corn.
Flint corns work well for recipes that are boiled, such as polenta. Dent corns are great for hominy and cornbread, and are also popular as animal feed. Flour corn is the easiest type to grind into meal or flour at home, and can even be used for cakes if ground finely enough.
Regardless of the type you choose, picking an heirloom variety will give you the best flavors by far!
Living in the short season climate of Montana, my personal favorite is Painted Mountain, a flour corn that was bred to grow in short season climates and mountainous areas. This bright-colored corn (pictured above) was bred from crossing a huge selection of heirloom Indian corns and then selecting the hardiest, fastest maturing ears.
The combination of colors gives a very complex flavor to cornbread and Johnny cakes. We like it, but I have heard of other growers separating the kernel colors before planting and placing each color in a separate block. This gives ears more pure colors and each color of cornmeal will have a little different flavor.
You can purchase heirloom field corn seed from Baker Creek or Seed Savers’ Exchange.
Growing Field Corn
Field corn seeds are less susceptible to rot than sweet corn, so unless you live in a very wet climate, they can be planted as soon as there is no danger of frost.
Once in the soil, field corns are grown just like sweet corn. I plant mine 6″ apart in rows 24″ apart, and don’t bother with thinning. They appreciate a dose of compost or organic fertilizer once or twice over the growing season. Fish emulsion is also beneficial to corn.
Like all corn, field corn should be planted in blocks, rather than a single row so that the wind will blow the pollen onto the emerging ears.
Field corn should be harvested when the husks have dried around the ears and before a hard frost. Pull back the husks and hang or spread the ears out to finish drying in an airy and well ventilated place.
When the ears have dried, the kernels can be removed with your hands by rubbing two ears together. You can also use a corn sheller (a simple tool costing $15-$20).
How to Grind Corn into Cornmeal
A Vitamix blender works well for grinding corn into meal or flour, but if you don’t have one already a basic hand crank grain mill is better.
The mill that’s pictured is what I’m using right now. I’ve been very impressed with the quality given the inexpensive price. Below you’ll find a popular model for grinding larger quantities of grain that is much more expensive, but for gardeners with a small corn patch I think the cheap one works great!
I usually run the corn through the mill twice, adjusting the screws the second time so the grinding burrs are closer together. It takes me around 5 minutes to grind 6 cups of cornmeal this way.
The first pile of coarse cornmeal on the left is after one pass through the grinder, the middle pile is after two passes (where I usually stop), and the finer meal on the right is after three.
Victoria Grain Mills
I’ve also used a Victoria grain mill, which is smaller. It is definitely better quality though, and has way better reviews. It’s probably the best one in the lower price range for grain mills.
For larger quantities of grain, Country Living is one of the best hand-crank models, and CGoldenwall makes one of the best electric ones. You can also get a mixer attachment for a Kitchenaid.
6 Comments
Kelley Harlow
Wow! Thank you! I had not thought growing and grinding my own corn . I’ve always grown sweet corn. I’m excited to grow field corn
Kait
I’m glad you found the information helpful, Kelley! Thanks for reading!
Julie
How much corn does it take to yield a pound of cornmeal/flour? How much would I need to grow to produce enough cornmeal/flour for 2#/month?
Thank you!
Kait
There are a lot of variables for corn yield, including the variety, your growing season, soil fertility and watering. A good benchmark to start with would be 1/8lb per plant for an organically grown heirloom corn. So for 2# you’d need about 16 plants, multiplied by 12 for a year = 192 plants. You can also look up the specific type of corn you are growing to see if there is any yield information online. And definitely keep track of your yield so you can adjust the amount you plant next year if needed. With good growing conditions and a high producing variety it’s possible to get double that yield or more. Hope that helps!
Sumer
Very helpful! I’m growing dent corn now for my own coarse ground flour. Do you just grind it as you need it and store dried ears in the pantry?
Kait
Hi, Sumer! Corn flour or cornmeal is definitely better freshly ground! I like to remove the kernels from the ears and store them in glass jars in the pantry. That way they take less space, are ready to use when I need them, and are less likely to attract bugs and mice. Many old timers did store the whole dried ears, though, so it is totally up to your preference. I either grind it as I need it, or sometimes grind up to a month’s worth at a time.