Author: Kyle

This interesting heirloom corn variety has gained some renown for its unique flavor and as a novel ingredient in grits and whiskey. Developed in South Carolina, James Island “Jimmy” Red corn (Zea mays indentanta) is a variety of red colored dent corn, which has a high soft starch content and Is so named for the mall indentation on each kernel of a ripe ear. This red coloration emerges after corn has matured and the kernels have dried, and depending on how it is milled this coloration may not be entirely imparted to the end culinary product. This variety was rescued from near extinction in the early 2000s by a local named Ted Chewning, having dwindled down to two ears worth, by growing and slowly increasing the seed stock.

The high starch and oil content as well as the unique flavor it imparts to whiskey, described as smooth with honey-nut undertones, makes Jimmy Red a novel ingredient in bourbon. High Wire Distilling in Charleston, SC has been brewing 100% Jimmy Red corn bourbon whiskey since 2014. Another distiller of Jimmy Red corn is Crouch Distilling of Columbia, SC. A bourbon certainly worth trying out, if you can find it.

References:

NPR:  From Hooch To Haute Cuisine: A Nearly Extinct Bootlegger’s Corn Gets A Second Shot

Slow Food USA:  Jimmy Red Corn

High Wired Distilling: Jimmy Red Revival Project

Railey Farm and Field:  Jimmy Red Corn Seed

Free Times:  Jimmy Red Corn Whiskey Is the Reason for the Season

Tedward Wines:  New Southern Revival Jimmy Red Straight Bourbon

The Local Palate:  The Return of Jimmy Red

It’s the start of a new year, and with that comes new goals and aspirations. Plans for growth and self improvement, challenges to overcome, and achievements to reach are all things we have in mind when we look ahead and think about the upcoming year.

My intention for 2018 is to get this website functional and use it as a personal log, an outlet for self expression, to try to write a daily about any topic that I find interesting – and to try to learn enough about it to describe the topic accurately to the best of my knowledge. Ideally the things I’ll post will reach someone out on the Internet trying to find an answer to their question or looking for an interesting insight, but I’ll be satisfied if all that I get out of this experience is an improvement in, and comfort with, writing and expressing myself.

So for my inaugural post, I might as well briefly talk about my experiences with getting things up and running again. It’s been quite a few years since I’ve bothered with web development, but things are getting off to a good start. Reacquainted myself with the basics such as FTP, mySQL, and content management systems. WordPress seemed like a simple platform to get started with, and didn’t take much work to get started after following their installation guide. So now I’m off to figure out site settings and customizing themes.