I am curious about the little baby corn-on-the-cob you find in chinese food. Where is it grown?

Question

I was wondering if anyone would know about this. What does the plant actually look like?

Answer 1

Corn is grown all around the world. Most of the corn grown in the United States is grown in the Corn Belt. The Corn Belt includes the states of Michigan, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska. The United States is the leading corn grower and grows more than 35% of the world's corn. Corn is grown in other countries, too. China, Argentina, Brazil, France, Mexico, Romania and Africa grow it. China is the second largest producer in the world. Japan is the largest importer of corn in the world. This means that they buy more corn than any other country.
There are many kinds of corn. Some kinds are popcorn, sweet, flour, flint, dent, and pod corn. Corn is a member of the grass family. Some grasses can grow wild but corn can't. It needs to be planted in rows so that the stalks can cross-pollinate each other. If they don't pollinate each other, there won't be any ears of corn.
Corn stems have long, skinny leaves. At the end of the stem is a tassel that looks like silk threads. The cob, or center of the corn that is inside the leaves, has thousands of seeds that are called kernels.
Corn plants start as a seed. Each kernel on an ear of corn is a seed. In the spring, farmers use row planters, or machines to plant the seeds. These will plant between two and 24 rows of corn at a time. Row planters spread weed killer and plant the seeds.. About two or three days after it is planted, it begins to swell with water from the ground. The roots break open the shell and attach to the dirt. Three to five days after that, you can see the plant coming up through the dirt. The stalk [or stem] gets taller as more leaves grow on the plant. The tassel forms at the top of the plant. The pollen from the tassels falls all over the silk at the end of the husk. This pollinates the silk so that it makes corn kernels inside the husk. Buds start to grow where the lower leaves and the stalk meet. Buds that are higher on the stalk will form into one or more ears of corn.
For 5-6 weeks, the corn plant starts to grow fast. The plant roots grow stronger so that they can hold up the extra weight of the corn as it grows. By the middle of summer, the corn can be taller than the farmer. Slowly the silk turns from a pretty light yellow to a dark brown. When it becomes brown, it's time to pick the corn.
The farmer uses a machine harvester, or combine, to take the husks [the ear of corn with the leaves around it] off of the corn. A combine can take the ears off of the stalks, take the husks off of the ears, shell and clean the corn. What is done depends on what is going to happen to the corn when it is sold. Some of the kernels are kept so that the farmer has seeds to plant for the next year. Some corn is sold for food and some is sold to feed cattle. Some is sent to mills to be ground into flour.
Some breakfast cereals, salad dressings, margarines, syrups, cornstarch and snacks have corn in them. Cornmeal is ground up corn that is used for corn bread, tamales, and tortillas. We also use it for things like baby powder, glue, soap, alcohol, and medicine.
Corn is used to feed livestock, too. Hogs, cattle, sheep, and poultry eat about half of the corn grain that is grown each year. Some corn is used for silage. Corn silage is livestock food that is made from the parts of the corn plant that are left after the roots and ears of corn have been taken off.

Answer 2

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
I am curious about the little baby corn-on-the-cob you find in chinese food. Where is it grown?
I was wondering if anyone would know about this. What does the plant actually look like?

Answer 3

Mini Corn On The Cob

Answer 4

The 'little baby corn' you ask about is actually the little baby of the corn plant,it is harvested so early that the corn is eaten whole ,immature kernels & cob all in one go.The plant is the usual corn plant,no different in any way & all the same places that corn normally grows,since it is a favourite ingredient in Asian cooking the garvesting for these tender corn is done manually,since a trained eye & gentle handling is needed.

Answer 5

I hate those baby corncobs!

Here's what I found:

those tiny corncobs aren't genetically mutated dwarf ears of corn -- they're just immature ears of regular corn.
Many varieties of corn can be used to produce baby corn. Seed companies offer special types of seed to grow baby corn, but all of these grow plants and corn ears that are just as big as the corncobs you might have at a summer BBQ. The secret is in the harvesting. Baby corn ears are picked by hand immediately when the silks emerge from the ear tips or a few days after. Corn matures quickly, so the harvest must be timed carefully to avoid ending up with normal corn ears. Baby corn ears are generally 4.5cm to 10cm in length and 7mm to 17mm in diameter.

Most baby corn commercially available in the U.S. is grown and processed in Asia, particularly in Thailand. Because baby corn must be picked by hand, it is too labor-intensive for most American farms. It's been an extremely important crop in Thailand since 1976, and other Asian nations have also begun producing and exporting it. Perhaps this is why baby corn is so often found in Asian recipes.

Next time you enjoy a mini cob, think of the poor little baby corn, cut down before its prime.

Answer 6

Asian Corn On The Cob

Answer 7

So funny you asked, I just finished making some Thai noodles for dinner and just used them!

Baby corn is a vegetable taken from standard maize (corn) plants harvested early, while the ears are very small and immature. Baby corn is typically eaten whole, cob and all, in contrast to mature maize, whose cob is typically too hard for human consumption. It is consumed both raw and cooked. Cooking it does not change its culinary and physical properties significantly; texture remains relatively the same, as does taste, which is relatively bland either raw or cooked. Baby corn is low in calories, high in fiber and, like all vegetables, cholesterol free. It contains zinc and vitamin B3.

I have only seen them fresh in Asia, always in cans here in the US.

Answer 8

ITs normal corn on the cob but shrunk with a special shrinking ray then hand picked by peruvian pygmy pixies in the traditional way using a very sharp mouse antler knife, it is then carried off by specialy trained Vole Carts to the processing plant, where it is frozen by polar bears with strong mints or canned by badgers to be shipped to stores all over the world. Sorry just being silly. It is young maize picked as it starts to form.

Answer 9

Regular sweet corn harvested early in season.

Answer 10

it is regular corn it is harvested within 5- 7 days after silk appears. if left on the stalk it will grow to full size.