Oxon Cove Park and Oxon Hill Farm
Crops
MAIZE HISTORY
Corn has been planted in North America for more than 7,000 years. From Mexico, corn spread throughout the West Hemisphere. By the time Christopher Columbus arrived, corn could be found from Canada to the tip of South America. Corn served as a main crop for Native American, early settles, and it continues to serve the need of our nation. Today corn ranks with wheat and rice as one of the world's chief grain crop and it is the largest crop of the United States.
FOOD FOR PEOPLE
Corn can be found in more than 3,000 products on the grocery shelf. The products contain starch, syrup, sweeteners, oil, meal, and flour all made from corn. Corn and its byproducts are essential part of today's human food chain.
FEED FOR ANIMALS
The number one use of corn is providing feed for livestock. Over 5 billion bushels of corn are consumed by domestic animals each year. Corn provides a high protein feed to produce healthy animals which provide quality meat products for the consumer.
WHAT IS WHEAT?
Wheat long known as the staff of life has served mankind throughout history as the main staple for diets all over the world. It is the most versatile grain known to humans and is a storehouse of health giving nutrients.
The wheat plants produces seed, called kernels. The kernels can be planted in the ground to grow more wheat plants. Or, the kernels can be ground into floor, which is used to make an incredible variety of foods we love, such as bread, cereal, pasta, cookies and much more.
More foods are made with wheat than any other cereal grain and it is the most widely planted cereal grain in the United States. Wheat is the principal sustaining grain for people over the world. The wheat plant is very adaptive and is grown all over the world, from sea level to high altitude slopes, from coastal plains to near desert conditions. The world's top wheat producing countries are China, India, the United States, and Russia.
Sorghum
Sorghum is a stalk type plant which grows on poor soil as well as good. It is a member of the grass family and is grown for syrup or forage. It is sometimes referred to as sorgo.
In 1854 the first seed was brought to the United States from Europe. The sorghums were cultivated during ancient times throughout Africa and Southern Asia. The plants are cultivated here at Oxon hill Farm in the lower fields until the see head ripens.
The plant produces a juice which is extracted by passing the stalks through a mill which crushes them. During the processing this juice thickens becoming a syrup called "Sorghum syrup." This syrup is sometimes referred to as molasses because of the color and density. However, it is unlike molasses - no sugar is produced while it is cooked. Black strap and other kinds of molasses are by products of sugar produced from cane and beet sugar plants.
The syrup is used as a table sweetener and sometimes mixed with animal feeds as a supplement. The leaves and toppings are fed to livestock while still fresh. The seed can be ground and used similar to buckwheat flour.
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