Cascade Ruby-Gold
Crop: Corn (Zea mays)
Use/Type: Flint
Breeder: Carol Deppe Fertile Valley Seeds
OSSI Pledge Date: January 2015
Release Date: Before 2015
Bred for Organic Systems: Yes
Commercial Availability: Yes
Variety Type: Finished Variety
Description
85 days. Bred for organic systems. Sister** to Cascade Creamcap. A very early, productive true flint corn superb for cornbread, jonny cakes, and polenta. Plants 5 ½ feet high with 1 to 3 ears per stalk depending upon spacing and soil fertility. (In rows under field conditions–1 ear at 6”; 1-2 at 8”; 2 ears at 12”; 2-3 at wider spacing.) Ears 8-12” with 8-12 rows of big seeds on a medium-narrow cob that dries down easily. Single stalk or multiple stalks depending upon spacing and soil fertility. Good husk coverage for protection against birds and worms. Very vigorous. Does well even in downright cold summers. Cascade corns did well even on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, in the unusually cold summer of 2011. Produces solid-colored ears of several colors—red, red-brown, dark red, orange-gold, maple-gold, gold, and yellow. Interior kernel color is always yellow or gold. Each color of ear produces a different flavor of cornbread and polenta. The red shades make a rich-flavored cornbread; the yellow shades make a mild-flavored cornbread. Both make great polenta and jonny cakes. Recipes for cornbread, jonny cakes, and polenta made with this corn can be found in The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-reliance in Uncertain Times. Although bred primarily to be gourmet-quality food, Cascade Ruby-Gold Flint also makes a great ornamental corn. I bred this corn to be the ultimate survival crop, the variety and crop you would choose if you could have only one variety to get you through good times and bad. Bred by crossing Roy’s Calais (aka Abenaki) with Byron flint and selecting from there. Compared with Roy’s Calais, CRG is equally early, more vigorous, more productive, has bigger ears with better husk coverage, is 8-12 row instead of only 8, has more ear colors, has gold instead of pale yellow interior color, and more of the yellow ears are gold instead of pale yellow.
Availability from OSSI Seed Company Partners
