Farming friends: Corn question

[channlluv]

Hello, O Ladies of the Land. I'm writing a new book for young children about a season on a farm. I have my farmer planting corn. The dried corn kernels you plant, do you call those kernels or seeds? Or is it a regional thing?

Thanks!

Roxy

[Marquise]

My father grew corn to feed his cows. It was referred to collectively as seed corn. I don't recall talk of kernels or seed but I think it would be okay to talk about kernels of seed corn. Hope that helps.

[MomOnBike]

In my family, we always called the stuff we planted 'seeds.'

I would be fine with 'seeds' being what you plant, and 'kernels' being what you eat.

[Pax]

Here in Illinois it's "seed". In case you want to write about soybeans at some point, you say "beans".

[channlluv]

Brilliant. I like "seed corn." Do humans eat that kind of corn, too, or is it ranked thing where animals eat a certain grade, but humans eat a higher grade, and this grade is used for making gasoline, and that grade is used to make corn syrup for cooking? And then there's the whole genetically-modified bit, but that has nothing to do with the book I'm working on right now. This one is strictly for very young readers and it follows a season on a farm. The farmer plants the seed corn. The seed corn grows tall. Easy words, simple sentence structure.

I like the delineation between seeds being what you plant and kernels being what you eat. And it's interesting that beans are always just beans, even when they're seeds. Hmmm.

Lots to fertilize..ahem...my book ideas here.

Thank you, ladies!

Roxy

[Marquise]

Brilliant. I like "seed corn." Do humans eat that kind of corn, too, or is it ranked thing where animals eat a certain grade, but humans eat a higher grade, and this grade is used for making gasoline, and that grade is used to make corn syrup for cooking?

Seed corn grows up to be field corn, which is fed to cows. Sweet corn is what humans eat. My father sometimes ate field corn harvested very young (and hence still tender) when sweet corn season started. He'd plant a couple of rows of sweet corn at the edge of the corn field closest to our house for easy picking.

No idea about corn for other uses. But corn fields are fascinating and scary for kids. Fun to run and disappear among the tall stalks but easy to feel lost and lots of sharp edges.