County of sign: Swain County
Location of sign: US-441 (Newfound Gap Rd.), Mountain Farm Museum, N. of Cherokee
Phone: 865-436-7318
Marker erected by: Great Smokey Mountains National park; National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior
Corn
Corn was the most important crop on mountain farms. It was primarily a source of cornmeal and fresh corn, but had other uses as well. The shucks were woven into chair seats, used to stuff mattresses, and made into dolls, hats, rugs, and mops. The leaves of the plant were fed to livestock and dry corncobs made good kindling for starting fires.
A family's corn crop might vary from a few acres to more than 20 acres depending on the size of the farm and family. Although grown primarily for a family's own use, corn was sometimes a cash crop as well.
This variety of corn, Hickory King, was developed in the mid-1800s and was popular in the southern mountains.
crops
A wide variety of crops and garden vegetables were grown on mountain farms, including wheat, rye, potatoes, squash, pumpkins, beans, and sorghum cane. However, none was as important, as widely grown, or had as many uses as corn.
Corn was eaten fresh as "roasting ears" or corn-on-the-cob, but was more important as a grain after it was dried and stored in the corn crib. Dried, shelled corn was taken to the grist mill each week, usually on Saturday, to be ground into cornmeal for cornbread and other cornmeal dishes. The dried kernels were also cooked to make hominy. Many families ate corn in some form at almost every meal.
If a family produced enough corn, some might be fed to the livestock, but it was the corn fodder, the dried leaves of the plant, that provided much of the winter livestock feed. Corn cobs were used to start fires and to make smoking pipes. The tough, pliable chucks, or husks, were sometimes twisted and woven into chair seats that many swore would outlast the chair. Shucks could be braided into ropes, made into hats, dolls, rugs, and mops, or used to stuff mattresses. Removing shucks from the ears of corn was often a social event, with family and friends gathering to help with the work." ~ Text by Tom Robbins, for Great Smoky Mountain Association & Nationals Park Service.