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Popcorn is one of my childrens favorite snacks and was at the top of my list of new crops to try in 2019. Before making any new additions to our garden plans, I thoroughly research each variety available and obsess over the optimal seed spacing and growing conditions needed. There are many interesting varieties of popcorn available, some are huge towering plants with full sized ears, some are tiny. The kernels of popcorn can be white, black, yellow, red, or multicolored and big, small, or even mushroom shaped. I was overwhelmed by the many options for growing popcorn! After ridiculous hours of corn research I chose Strawberry Popcorn, and Im pretty happy with our experience with this crop. But not everything I read about this tiny little corn was true so I felt the need to write my own review with pros and cons from my experience.
Strawberry popcorn is petite in ear size, kernel size, and stalk height. Each kernel planted produces a 4-5 foot multi-stalked corn plant. Their diminutive stature makes them an ideal crop for small vegetable gardens or ornamental plantings. Even though they are small, these plants are very productive. Ours produced 3-4 ears per plant with each ear measuring 2-4 long.
I planted our Strawberry popcorn in an eighteen foot square of double rows. The seeds were quick to germinate and the plants grew rapidly. They were bushier than most corn with many plants producing multiple stalks. Their short bushy nature is probably why they have no problem with lodging (falling over in high winds).
The stature of these little grasses also made them quite aesthetically pleasing. I imagine they would be a fine accent in mixed borders or fantastic included in huge Summer planters.
Popping and Grinding Strawberry Popcorn
When we have movie nights in our house, the air-popper usually gets used to make fluffy popcorn. When I was researching Strawberry Popcorn I found a blog post that said it could be popped just like any other popcorn in an air-popper. They lied! The blogger that wrote this was apparently making an assumption, and had obviously never actually popped these tiny kernels. The light weight corn just blew right out of the popper before it had a chance to pop. I tried several times and discovered one way that it would work; I had to hold the air popper tilted backwards at a 45 degree angle until the kernels got hot enough to pop. I used an oven mitt to keep from burning my hand, but it was still most unpleasant. The conclusion of my painful Strawberry Popcorn trial was that the best way to safely pop this corn is the old fashioned way, in a heavy pot with lid.
Regardless of how you manage to pop it, the flavor is great. It is popcorn that actually has flavor, slightly nutty and rich. But, alas, we were not blown away by the texture of these tiny little puffs. They were a bit tougher than ideal. Not bad, just not the perfect airy snack we had hoped for. So, we decided to try this corn out in other ways.
