G'day to all! A Chamber of Commerce day here in central Georgia. Been out in the workshop building a table for a farmer friend of mine and starting to get in the short rows with it. The same table on the internet sells for $549 with shipping. Just a token of appreciation for all the help that my life long friends do for me and my family. I am chomping at the bit to get started planting. Corn will probably be the first thing I plant as it can handle a frost and keep on ticking. Yall mentioned earlier about planting cowpeas in the corn. I tried it, but didn't care for it as corn loves nitrogen and peas don't need much of it or you get a lot of vines and not many peas. Plus, my favorite cowpea is Red Rippers and they make a heck of a bush with runners. It gets too 'snakey' to harvest either of them! I live near Eastman, Georgia (Home of Stuckey's candies) and buy my seed at a local home garden center (Chas Mar) as they have a good selection and are reasonably priced compared to ordering from the internet. Soon I will be taking my wife down there to choose the peas and beans she wants me to plant this season. My wife was born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, but loves the country. It does my heart good to see her so pleased at looking at the different kinds and making choices. Getting all sloppy now... lol Mr. Brown, I have a friend that lives in Avon Park, Florida (below Orlando) that loves gardening too and wonder if your 'winter home' is near there? George, we should keep quiet about the country life... hee hee We might not be in the country long if the word gets out... Shot

I personally really liked Northstine Dent overall, its hardy and productive. I've grown a lot of variety of flours, dents, and flints, and each has its own pluses and minuses, of course. Some of the flour corns I got from Native Seeds/SEARCH in Arizona were my favorites in terms of the quality of the finished product, a really nice, soft cornmeal or a soft fluffy flour, but I found most of their varieties prone to rusts and weird foliage spots here in cool and dampish Michigan, which I guess makes sense for varieties used to the dessert Southwest. Of the ones I tried, I think the most impressive was the one in the link -- very large kernels but so quick and easy to grind. Here is a link that might be useful: My favorite of the corns from Native Seeds/SEARCH

Steve, I ground dent corn from Hickory King that we grew, using a Corona hand mill. I also took the kernels off by hand (how else?) we only had a few cobs. Just enough for 2-3 corn breads. I use the Corona mostly for nut meals, but it works well for corn too. I had the exact same problem you describe, but I attributed it to the type of corn. The year before, I grew Hopi blue and had no problems with the chaff or germ not grinding right, with the exact same grain mill. This, the flavor, and the horrible pest problems lead me right back to growing Hopi blue, and I will not grow HK again. This year I am sacrificing the corn patch for more tomatoes, so no corn at all. However, I loved the Hopi blue, never had corn bread that good! I did not care for the corn bread we made with the hickory king. I had to do the same thing you describe, sift the chaff from the ground meal. Same exact problem with some coarser grains getting in there too. I saved it in a baggie and I was going to add it to the mush I make sometimes for our dogs. I wonder if it would work to cook it as grits? In any case, I have wondered if this might be the difference between flour corn (Hopi blue and others) and dent corn (Hickory king and many others)? The blue just ground so well by comparison.

christineny - Any standard enriched bread recipe will make burger/dog buns, so pick from any of your favorites. You really don't need a special recipe. I do have some tips I'll share that hopefully will make some sense. 1. If you happen to have muffin top pans (usually 6/pan and are very shallow, about 1/2-inch deep), they work great for helping to form a nice round burger/sandwich bun, but on a cookie sheet is just fine. There are pans designed for both hamburger and hot dog buns, but I've improvised and used what I already have. I also have a Pizza Piccolo Pan (12 shallow impressions - I got it from King Arthur) that I use to make small sandwich buns (1.5-2 oz. dough). I measure the dough 2-4 oz. for regular burger buns (depending on how large I need them). You can go larger if you like, just remember 1 oz. of bread is a serving, so you can have a lot of bread servings tied up in one bun - it's already at least 2-servings. After you form the dough ball, pat it to about 1/2-inch thick (oil your hands for easy handling of the dough). Cover and allow to rise per usual... 2. The amount of dough for hot dog buns is approximately the same size as the hot dogs you are going to use (also 2-4 oz.), rolled to approximately the same length and size as the hot dog you are using. I scale (weigh) the dough for hamburger buns and hot dog buns so that they are close to the same size when done. I bake hot dog buns two at a time in small loaf pans (3-1/4x5-3/4-inches). This is convienent for me because I can bake a couple if I have extra bread dough from making loaves, and we only use 2 at a time and these freeze nicely wrapped in a pop-up sheet of foil I get from Sam's Club. When the panned hot dog buns are done/cool, I pull the two apart and slice each one down the middle, but not quiet completely through. These are perfect for holding a hot dog that I butterfly open (one cut almost completely through) and grilled open. You can also place the hot dog size pieces of dough on a baking sheet to raise/bake individually. Another option is to place them in a pan for pull-apart hot dog buns - use a pan about 5-6 inches wide, which is the approximate length of most hot dog buns (disposable 8-1/4x5-1/4x1-inch foil pans work pretty good for 5 hot dog buns for regular hot dogs). I always keep individually wrapped burger/sandwich buns in the freezer. -Grainlady