The gift of corn

Could there ever be anything finer than living the good life in Carolina and finding before you a plate loaded with an egg or two, a couple of links of pork sausage or maybe some smoked bacon partially buried beneath a generous heaping dollop of snow-white grits swimming in a sweet butter?

Such is the typical morning breakfast of the vast majority of the Southern working class, so claimed by those who study such dietary matters, while emphasizing the trend is continuing to grow beyond this and other nations.

For the delight of grits, we can thank the American Indians who told early explorers and settlers of a grass-like plant the natives called maize. They showed how it could be dried and its kernels ground to create a meal now known as corn pone.

Mark Twain insisted corn pone be translated as meaning “self-satisfying.” Indeed, it is. Listen to “Oklahoma,” the musical play by Rogers and Hammerstein where they sing of “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” and rejoice in their crop, singing, “The corn is as high as an elephant’s eye / An’ it looks like it’s climbin’ clear up to the sky.”

July will bring us the sweet corn season, another version of the Indians’ gift worthy of Twain’s praise as “self-satisfying.”

This story was originally published June 25, 2016 at 6:00 PM with the headline "The gift of corn."