[Macky]

Lynsey, any good seed catalogue will mark their corn varieties with on of those four designations in my previous post. The traditional varieties are marked SU.

BlessedBlue... I'm finding it difficult not to sit here longer. I've GOT to get outside! Corn is included in survival gardens because of it's high calorie content. Yes, corn can be a high-input crop if you choose to treat it that way and you're after the highest yields per plant. If you're taking care of your soil and working the stalks back in to compost, though, you're returning most of those inputs to the soil and all you really need is enough water to get it off to a good start and one or two applications of nitrogen, which can be naturally sourced (fish emulsion, blood meal, etc.). Corn is mostly a nitrogen hog. We get enough rainfall here that constant irrigation isn't necessary. I'm a firm believer that any crop that needs excessive special treatment to grow in a certain climate shouldn't be grown on a wide scale in that climate. Farmers don't grow corn (or melons or tomatoes or kiwi or...) here because our climate isn't suitable for commercial farming of it and because most farmers here do not irrigate (we're in the middle of the wide-open prairie). If corn is requiring THAT many inputs in areas of the US, that's a brilliant sign that Americans shouldn't grow so much of it. ANYTHING in excess is not good for you - corn, kale, carrots, whatever. I think we all can agree on that.

Carol Deppe wrote a book called Food in Uncertain Times: How to Grow and Store the Five Crops You Need to Survive. Many online sites that talk about the importance of corn as a survival food refer back to her research. I've not read her book myself, but I did find this interview online. As far as the nutrients of corn, you can find that easily with any search engine. Here's one that popped up on my quick search. K... going now, back later.

ETA: We get more than our fair share of processed foods from the US, so don't think we're entirely immune from your corn-based foods up here.

E(again)TA: Lynsey, I just typed "Ambrosia corn" into a Google search and the first link was to Park Seed. The description says it's a sugar-enhanced (SE) variety.