Cateto and Cousins Composite Orange Flint Corn – Diversity Mix (Certified Organic)

Grown by Laughing Springs Farm (NC) – Zea mays – 110-130 days – Diversity Mix

Dark orange flint maize landraces are found from Argentina in South America all the way up the Atlantic coast into the Caribbean. Eventually, these maizes made it to the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North America, and to the Mediterranean and beyond. Referred to as Cateto and Caribbean Flints, these varieties are delicious (especially used as grits, cornmeal, and polenta), are pest and disease resistant, and are relatively widely adapted.

Cateto and Cousins is a diverse mix created by Jay Bost of Laughing Springs Farm that includes orange flints from many of these locations. Jay worked on an orange flint in Hawaii between 2013 and 2021 called Waimanalo Orange, which is based on strains selected by James Brewbaker and Frank Kutka. After moving to North Carolina, in 2022, he started adding in many more strains including several from temperate South America (sourced through the USDA), two North American varieties (Yellow Creole and Yellow Guinea), and two Italian polenta varieties, among others.

This complex mixture, sometimes referred to in breeding as a composite, and in more contemporary parlance as a ‘grex’ or an ‘ultracross’ is now ready to turn loose as a diverse breeding population in our fields and in anyone else’s interested to try it out and make selections suited to their tastes and environment. 50-70 days to flowering; 110-130 days to maturity. 125 seeds/ounce.

These seeds and their offspring are open-source and not available for private intellectual property ownership. Pass these words on when you pass the seeds on!