She:kon/Welcome To The Corn Mafia Online Store
We’ll be offering all of our corn products here, and eventually some collaborative things such as wild foraged teas, finishing salts, spice blends, rubs, and maybe even a miso or two. And of course some swag like t-shirts, stickers, and some wooden spoons.
Hominy is made in the process called nixtamalization. To make hominy, field corn (maize) grain is dried, then treated by soaking and cooking the mature (hard) grain in a dilute solution of lye (sodium hydroxide) (which can be produced from water and wood ash) or of slaked lime (calcium hydroxide from limestone). The maize is then washed thoroughly to remove the bitter flavor of the lye or lime. Alkalinity helps dissolve hemicellulose, the major glue-like component of the maize cell walls, loosens the hulls from the kernels, and softens the corn. Also, soaking the corn in lye[4] kills the seed's germ, which keeps it from sprouting while in storage. Finally, in addition to providing a source of dietary calcium, the lye or lime reacts with the corn so that the nutrient niacin can be assimilated by the digestive tract.[5] People consume hominy in intact kernels, grind it into sand-sized particles for grits, or into flour. ~ Wikipedia
The Indigenous People of The Northeast Woodlands also typically refer to this process as “lyeing” or “washing” corn. These corns or O:nenhste as we say in Mohawk, are sourced from landrace, Indigenous farmed or organic sources. Subsequently, a portion of our hearts and/or wallets are devoted to strengthening our Indigenous Farmers, Communities and Onkwehonwe, The People.
Our Longhouse Hominy refers to not only the dwellings that Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) people lived in, but also to the atmosphere and environment that a lot of our foods, belongings and people lived in or were stored in. Longhouses are and were often very smokey places, and we have tried to recreate that feeling and flavor of the past here in our hominy in the here and now. We fire roast our hominy after washing it, to give it our signature taste of the past. Some people think Indigenous foods are or were bland. These products are meant to act as a foil to such unadventurous thoughts. There’s something unique to our hominy, that we proudly share with you in several forms. What’s old is new, what’s old will never leave us.
ABOUT OUR PRODUCTS
Grits
Grits are our coarsest grind, and you may know them as mush or even polenta. Some even say Samp.
Cornmeal
Cornmeal is just like it says, a smaller, sandy grind of our hominy that is perfect in your favorite cornbread, johnny cake, pone, cookies and as part of a breader for fried fish or chicken
Masa aka Corn Flour
Is the finest of our grinds initially meant for tamales, tortillas, cornbread, hush puppies, crepes, etc.
Whole Hominy
Our hominy has been nixtamalized and dried. Just soak overnight to use!
Our White Hominy for grinding is often a blend of heirloom corn and our own Cherokee Flour Corn that we’ve grown this past summer. This is a modern way for us to recreate history and flavor through mimicking the smokey environments of our traditional Longhouses amongst the Mohawk and Haudenosaunee people.
Our Yellow Corn is a blend of Trucker’s Favorite and Organic Corns . It’s called All Y’All because that’s what our Southern folks are used to eating, so after some requests, we’ve added it to our line!
Our Red Corn when available, is named after a respected Seneca Chief named Red Jacket. He had some great quotes about us and the colonizers living together. (Bloody Butcher on deck possibly)
Our Blue Corn, is named after the Blue Ridge Mountains that have been a trade route North and South for millennia amongst Native Americans. We are presently grinding a Conico Blue Corn with a beautiful organic flint.
Fat Red Hominy is a type of large, kernelled landrace corn from Mexico, that we’ve selected for the perfect corn soups or pozole. Clip the tips from the ends to have that blooming effect that you see in a lot of pozole, or that nasty canned stuff!
Becky Blanca, is our favorite new addition to our lineup of hominy. It’s a landrace variety from Mexico known as Cacahuazintle, THE choice of Pozolero’s everywhere!
We also will occasionally offer other corns as available. Please contact us if you’re a Native Grower, or Farmer of Heirloom Corns!
THE CONGAREE MILLING COMPANY
Visit our partner's site for organic stone-ground grain products