#corn galls

[solarpunkpresentspodcast]

Eating Like the Ancestors (Some of Them, at Least)

Christina here. When the dog and I went out for a walk on Wednesday afternoon, we paused to admire one of the many walls of corn lining the fields right now. Look closely at this photo. Just behind the dog you can spot blobs on one of the corn stalks. In fact, they're blobs growing out of one ear of corn.

Here's what they look like close up. Yuck! Disgusting. Like aliens life forms have invaded and taken over the corn kernels and blown them up to elephantine proportions.

I've been seeing this on corn cobs around here for years and scratching my head about it. Last year, I finally got around to googling. Turns out it's not aliens that have invaded the corn cobs, but a fungus that infects ears into which rain has gotten in. Science calls this fungus Ustilago maydis. In Mexico, they call the resulting galls of fungus huitlacoche and they eat them. But the galls are referred to most unpoetically as corn smut in English, which views it as little more than a crop pest/disease that needs to be eradicated.

This year, I worked up the courage to bring some of these swollen blobs home and cook them up for dinner. It's not so different than collecting wild mushrooms, after all, and I was 99.9% sure of my identification of them. Even though they're weird looking and filled with tarry, black spores, the indigenous Mexican ancestors of mine in my dad's family tree would have considered them a delicacy (although I'm assuming they lived in the part of Mexico where they grow corn). Maybe my father's mom and dad even ate huitlacoche when they were kids, before they left their small towns in the Sierra Madre in Mexico for Los Angeles. But, having never been there, I have no idea if this is the sort of place where they grow corn either.

So maybe my paternal grandparents never knew about huitlacoche themselves. I honestly have no idea. What I do know is that corn fungus galls weren't in my grandmother's repertoire of Mexican dishes by the time I came into this world, about fifty years after her family left Mexico for California. That's my defense for why I hadn't known they were a Mexican culinary delicacy, and why I jumped to the I think entirely reasonable conclusion that they were parasites from outer space. One of the downsides of integration, I guess, is losing that sort of cultural knowledge (or one of the upsides, depending upon how you feel about eating fungally infected maize flesh).

But, having summoned up the courage to eat the fungal galls, meant I first had to summon up the courage to touch them. It took courage. I expected they'd be slimy. But that was silly of me. Are mushrooms slimy? (Only when they themselves are rotting, thanks to bacteria or slime mold.) Huitlacoche aren't slimy at all. Just... spongy. I tore a few galls off the infected ear, smearing black, tarry material on my hand in the process. Which was, admittedly, kind of yuck. But I persisted, stuffing a bunch of galls in my pockets to bring home.

The galls are really cool looking when you slice them open. I hadn't expected all that internal structure at all.

But they're a little less convincing when you dice them.

I love the interwebs. What did we ever do without it (I mean, besides have to get up off our butt and go to the library). In seconds flat, I found a recipe (well, several) that suggested frying the huitlacoche up with onions, garlic, and serrano peppers. They you layer the mixture, along with shredded Oaxaca cheese, inside a corn tortilla you heat up. Then you have... a magnificent quesadilla.

I would have followed the recipe to a tee if I had lived somewhere in the world other than Germany! I had to settle for substituting the yellow bell pepper I had in my fridge and some chipotle chiles pureed with adobo sauce for the serrano chiles, low moisture mozzarella for the Oaxaca cheese, and yufka (the Turkish near equivalent of a flour tortilla) for the corn tortillas. Which also means I had to take an antihistamine because eating wheat makes me wheeze, gives me hay fever, and makes me snore.

However, I did have some fresh cilantro growing on the window sill, so that was a win! I tossed some over the top of the finished quesadilla and... after letting everyone know I was embarking on eating a foraged fungus I'd never tried before... dug in. Aaand... it was WONDERFUL. The huitlacoche tastes like a mixture of nixtamalized corn (e.g., masa) and what I imagine a truffle tastes like. Altogether it was THE BEST QUESADILLA I HAVE EVER EATEN.

And now I'm, like, d'oh! All those years I stared at the huitlacoche galls on the corn and thought EW! What an idiot I was. I could have been eating this amazingness instead. Three cheers to the person who first got hungry (or curious) enough to give the fungal galls on maize a good chew. They're totally now my hero.

The farmers here are starting to harvest the corn now. That means I have no time to waste if I want to go harvest more huitlacoche. I think I'll go out tomorrow, wandering along the outer rows of the cornfields (any deeper and the deer and the wild boars lurking within and I might end up surprising each other). The huitlacoche galls don't keep long in the fridge, but I've you can freeze them. It would definitely be great to eat it again without having to wait a whole other year.

If you're curious about giving them a go, maybe go find yourself a market that sells them either fresh or frozen.

[disease]

CORNELIS GALLE THE ELDER “LVCIFER” // circa 1590-1600 [engraving on paper | 275 x 200 mm.]

[tinkerpeller]

f it, corn yaoi swap

[chepooka]

Apparently Lucifer's balls are the centrum mundi (center of the world) in Dante's cosmology, as this print by Cornelis Galle the Elder shows

[pumpkinpaix]

hi my life is a disaster.

[a8ra]

Mater Dolorosa

Cornelis Galle

17th. century

[cornmazehater]

WHY AM I SO HESITENT TO TALK TO MY BESTIE

DUDE ANXIETY  S U C K S

[throathook]

[sodrippy]

if im being really honest...i have beef w halloween bc it detracts from my birthday

[bumblechub]

thrips are very strange little dudes! here are my favorite facts I learned about them (all via wikipedia):

Thrips is plural no matter what! You can have one thrips or many thrips!

They use their feathery wings to utilize a very weird and a typical strategy to fly called the "clap and fling". I can't even begin to describe this process as it was way too sciencey for me, even on the Wikipedia article. I also couldn't find a video of them doing it, but it sounds cool!

They have asymmetrical mouth parts!

They usually bite plants, but they can also bite you!!

Kladothrips is a genus of Australian gall thrips, and is notable for including some of the few organisms outside of Hymenoptera that exhibit eusociality!

Common names for thrips include thunderflies, thunderbugs, storm flies, thunderblights, storm bugs, corn fleas, corn flies, corn lice, freckle bugs, harvest bugs, and physopods!

there is also very little thrips art! so hopefully this adds something bright ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 I was going for a sort of rainbow scratch off art vibe.

[kimberly40]

October Weather Lore Sayings From the Old Farmers Almanac:

•Much rain in October, much wind in December.

•As the weather in October, so it will be in March.

•Warm October, cold February.

•If October brings much frost and wind, then January and February will be mild.

•When birds and badgers are fat in October, a cold winter is expected.

•When it freezes and snows in October, January will bring mild weather. If it is thundering and heat-lighting, the winter will resemble April in temper.

•A good October and a good blast,

So blow the hog-acorn and the mast.

•When deer are gray in coat in October, expect a severe winter.

•Thunder in October signifies great winds and a dearth of corn.

•If in October many fall leaves wither and hang on the boughs, it betokens a frosty winter and much snow.

•In cold, long winters, rabbits are fat in October and November. In mild and pleasant winters, they are poor in those months.

•Gnats in October are a sign of long, fair weather.

•Full moon in October without frost, no frost till the full Moon in November.

•If we don’t get our Indian summer in October or November, we will get it in the winter.

•Ice in October that will bear up a duck foretells a winter as wet as muck.

•A hard winter follows a fine St. Denis (October 9th).

•If St. Calixtus’ Day (October 14th) be dry and windy, the winter will be wet, but if it be rainy and still, the harvest will be good.

•If it is fine on St. Gall’s Day (October 16th), it will be fine up to Christmas.

•October 18th marks the start of St. Luke’s Little Summer.

*Pictured is Sunnyvale Baptist Church in McDowell County, NC on Hwy 80.

[talonabraxas]

An engraving of Dante’s encounter with Lucifer/Satan at the end of the Inferno. Illustrators of Dante have given us a number of depictions of Dante’s fallen angel—a monstrous beast with multiple wings and three heads; icy blasts from the wings travel through the circles of Hell—but this is one I’d not seen before. The engraving is by Cornelis Galle the Elder after a drawing by Lodovico Cardi (also known as Cigoli), and it’s unusual for showing Lucifer in full rather than the more common partial view of the monster imprisoned in the ice. LVCIFER Cornelis Galle the Elder

[random-autie-fangirl]

In my opinion, Chara gets really close to forgiving Asriel for messing up their plan, really close to just admitting they made a mistake, Asriel was too soft and kind to ever harm anyone, of course, so it never could have worked.

But once they learn (at the end of the true lab, in my opinion) that Asriel is Flowey, all that progress is erased.

Because they were far more willing to accept "Asriel died because he didn't want to hurt anyone" before it turned out that he went on to hurt a bunch of people.

In Chara's opinion, Asriel got them killed for morals he didn't even keep, because he was all for violence as soon as he no longer had need for it. (Please note that this is Chara's perspective, not mine)

They ignore everything that led him up to this point, going with the stupidly simplistic interpretation that he killed everyone simply because he was bored of doing the right thing.

And they hate him for it, not only did he ruin their plan, he killed all of their royal subjects.

And this doesn't change after the Asriel fight, not at all:

How dare he demand forgiveness after what he's done (he literally says "I understand if you can't forgive me")

How dare he think he is above consequences, that he can get off scott free ("there's no excuse for what I've done")

How dare he act like what he did doesn't matter now he's reset (lol, lmao)

How dare he be the angel, how dare he be the one to free everyone, how dare he think he can redeem himself (as if he did so literally just to spite Chara, as if he was thinking of the prophecy at all in that moment)

How dare he have the gall to criticize them after his betrayal (the point wasn't to hurt Chara, it was to warn Frisk)

They try to keep all this hatred and anger in their brain, no need for Frisk to know, right? (Not that they always succeed)

The point is, post pacifist Flowey might be a little resentful after the events of the buttercup plan. But in that case, it would definitely go both ways.

Chara goes from "You mean everything to me, I would do almost anything for you" to "I would give a corn chip for the privilege of selling you to satan" the moment they learn he is Flowey, and that is...painful and also hilarious.

[victusinveritas]

Lucifer - Cornelis Galle the Elder, after Lodovico Cardi, 1595.

Descent of Christ into Limbo (detail) - Bartolomé Bermejo, c.1475.

[teecupangel]

Submitted by @saberamane​

Long boring day at work with nothing to do but daydream so…

Modern AU, Desmond x your pick

Desmond, a bartender, is unlucky in love. Not because he’s unattractive, or boring to talk to, or offensive. But because of what’s in his apartment.

A pet. Or pets, more like. Of which Desmond loves dearly, and everyone else hates, to the point that it ends the relationship.

Desmond has snakes. Three to be exact. All rather docile and friendly, and only dangerous to his love life.

                       WARNING FOR SNAKES BELOW

His ‘palmetto’ morph corn snake Lucy. (Mostly white with sparse speckles of gray and orange.) 

His Honduran Milk Snake Becca. 

And, his pride and joy (don’t tell Lucy or Becca) Eden, his Albino ball python. 

He lives in a 2 bedroom ground floor apartment, the 2nd bedroom is where all his snakes are kept.

Every relationship, without fail, ends when the 'snake room’ is discovered. Even if they’ve been dating for months.

Desmond has pretty much stopped dating at this point. He’s tired of getting hurt. (And being told to choose between his love interest and the three things that bring meaning to his life. The things that keep him going because they need him.)

His next 'relationship’ is completely accidental. A one night stand that happened again and again until they were running into each other in random places, and then meeting for coffee or lunch.

Desmond absolutely DOES NOT bring them back to his apartment. Until he does. Because he loves to hurt himself.

The second bedroom is not addressed, the door staying closed. Until several weeks later when Desmond wakes up and finds himself alone in bed. He finds his lover in the second bedroom, his heart stopping, knowing what was going to come next.

He did not expect to be asked what color morph, exactly, Lucy was. Or where he got Eden. Or why Becca was staring so intently at the lid of her enclosure.

Desmond can only describe the next hours as a miracle, his lover taking Eden out of her cage without a single ounce of fear, holding her expertly and talking to her like most people do dogs and cats.

Desmond decides, this relationship has to work out if it kills him. He will never find someone else quite like this again. (He’s already fallen so hard…)

HAPPY ENDING??

(I’m not a huge fan of snakes myself, for trauma reasons, but I can admire that they are beautiful creatures. And hell spawn at the same time. Why no legs? Why so fast with no legs? Sorry to anyone else who gets squirmy with snake pics. I honestly have no idea why this came to me.)

=============

Additions from teecup:

It would be fun if Desmond’s past relationships were shown like a montage: one sentence for each and they’re not named but each of their sentence hints at their identity like “One of them even had the gall to demand Desmond choose between him and his babies, only to stomp out of the apartment like a spoiled brat when Desmond retorted angrily (and not at all seriously) that he had no legs to stand on since Desmond never demanded he stopped talking to his sister every five goddamn minutes”. Something that shows just the kind of pain (and headache) Desmond had to go thru while giving a little ‘nudgenudgewinkwink’ at who those past lovers had been.

As for the snakes, I kinda like the idea that Eden is the oldest of them and she’s Desmond’s favorite because Desmond was there when she was hatched. She’s actually the only remaining offspring of Desmond’s first snake (… shall we call her Minerva? XD) so Desmond watched Eden grow up, making Eden his baby and ‘first born’. Eden would be the most ‘ sociable’ of his babies, having been born and raised by Desmond with love and care so, to her, humans are nice people.

Lucy would be ‘unplanned’. Desmond was just in the pet store he buys supplies for Eden shopping for something to get for Eden’s enclosure and the owner (maybe Clay? Or, if we want someone a bit older, Piri or maybe even Gavin?) would tell him about this ‘palmetto’ morph that needs a new home, taken from a neglectful (and maybe even abusive) owner and they thought Desmond would be perfect since he’s such a good owner. Lucy’s the shiest of the three and likes to hide in the small hollow log that’s part of her enclosure but she’s also the clingiest among the three when it concerns Desmond.

Rebecca, on the other hand, was a pet Desmond got on the suggestion of the snake owner forum he’s part of when he posted he was thinking of getting a new baby (maybe to celebrate something? His 25th birthday? Getting a raise at work? Maybe even something adorkable like ‘I’ve been caffeine free for 6 months’). Rebecca’s the newest of the bunch, the baby-est of the babies, and she loves slithering out of her enclosure whenever the lid is opened, mostly to curl on Desmond’s wrist for a while until Desmond puts her back inside.

As for the pairing, there are a lot of pairings that would work for this one since most of them wouldn’t be scared of snakes (although a few of them would definitely be surprised if the snakes did a sneak ‘attack’/hello on them).

Of course, I would totally say Altaïr because it’s me, you know me, and he could be like a college professor. It would be fun if he was like a history professor that has a popular mythology/folklore class in the nearby college and the main reason why he’s okay with snakes is because his college thesis had been about how mythology and folklore describe snakes. It would probably make Desmond happy to hear someone talk about the positive view humans have about snakes, like the Rainbow Serpent Yurlungur who created the world.

Also, Altaïr is one of the few AC characters I can totally see saying this without even a hint of embarrassment:

“There’s also the Ouroboros, usually shown depicting a snake biting its own tail. It’s supposed to symbolize…” His eyes were focused on Desmond as he continued, “Eternity.”

(seriously, if we get Altaïr as the lover, the happy ending would be him proposing to Desmond with a ring shaped like an Ouroboros, a symbol of ‘eternity’)