Grow Your Own Princess Popcorn

My daughter is half tomboy and half princess, she is either one extreme or the other. Needless to say, we have many “pink” accessories. So while shopping with her in the retail store (yes, we have a store – check it out!) her eyes immediately went to pink popcorn. While mumbling under my breath, I purchased that packet of pink popcorn as an experiment. We had never grown popcorn before.

My raised bed garden is generally not conducive for corn plantings. Sweet corn was an epic fail. Indian corn was probably planted too late. But fear not, now we have pink popcorn. So a planting we went.

Due to the color choice my daughter was more than happy to take the lead with planting (also because I didn’t feel like bending down). We prepped the soil with compost and I handed her a stick to help space seeds an appropriate distance. I have found upside down marking paint to be a great help in laying out rows, so two bright orange lines were painted in the bed. I was floored that this project had her attention, all the while hoping this would work out.

Up came the corn. Two nice little rows, evenly spaced (good kid!). The corn grew tall, set tassel, and then ears. Beautiful little ears. Rows were even inspected by my father, who was fine with them until he learned the color of the kernels….oh well. The corn eventually started to brown so I braved the unknown world of popcorn and pulled down the husk. We had corn! We had no bugs, and the rows were filled out. We had no wildlife damage, or dog damage. Things were looking good and the first harvest was a celebration. We pulled the driest ears and bunched them to use as decoration as they dried. My daughter was proud. We had bunches of corn hanging all over the porch, hoping the birds and mice would leave them alone.

It is now December, and time to see if our corn project not only produced something decorative but also something edible. I love multipurpose plants! The color is not as vibrant as it once was, but that doesn’t surprise me. Shelling went smoothly and 3 ears provided enough kernels for one batch in my air popper. The corn probably was not as dry as it could have been, it took longer to pop – but once it did we had popcorn! While this variety does not make the great big pure white popped corn that some varieties produce, it is perfect for a 7 year old!