Navajo White Corn is a traditional flour corn variety with deep roots in Navajo agricultural heritage, grown using time-honored techniques on the Colorado River plateau near Shiprock, New Mexico. This cultivar represents a living connection to indigenous farming practices, cultivated by Bidii Baby Food LLC through flood irrigation and permaculture methods that have sustained Navajo communities for generations. The variety produces white kernels suited to grinding into flour, a staple preparation in traditional Navajo cuisine and contemporary food production.
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This corn carries the authenticity of traditional Navajo cultivation, grown with flood irrigation and permaculture practices on the Colorado River plateau rather than industrial methods. Every seed comes from a farm committed to preserving both the genetics and the cultural growing techniques that define this variety. That combination of heirloom genetics and purposeful, place-based agriculture makes it far more than just another flour corn.
Navajo White Corn is primarily used as a flour corn, ground into meal for traditional Navajo dishes and contemporary flour-based applications. The white kernels are well-suited to grinding for cornmeal, corn flour, and other processed forms that are central to Navajo cuisine and contemporary Native food production.
No timeline data available yet for this variety.
Direct sow seeds in the garden once soil temperature reaches at least 60°F, planting deeper than you would sweet corn to anchor the taller stalks. Plant seeds 1 to 1.5 inches deep, spaced according to your desired plant density.
Allow ears to fully mature on the stalk for flour corn purposes, waiting until the husks dry and papery and the kernels are hard and fully dented. Harvest by hand, peeling back the husks and twisting the ear downward to break it from the stalk. For grinding purposes, allow ears to dry completely before shelling the kernels.
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“Navajo White Corn emerged from centuries of Navajo agricultural tradition on the Colorado River plateau in what is now northwestern New Mexico near Shiprock. The variety has been continuously grown and refined by Navajo farmers using flood irrigation and permaculture techniques adapted to the region's specific climate and water systems. In recent times, Bidii Baby Food LLC has taken on the stewardship of this corn, maintaining both the seed stock and the traditional growing methods on their farm plot. This represents a deliberate act of cultural preservation, keeping not just the seed genetics alive but the entire knowledge system of how to grow and use this corn in ways that have sustained Navajo communities.”