Dried Maize Cobs Hanging in a Barn

Corn began as teosinte, a wild grass of southern Mexico whose small ears held only a handful of kernels, each sealed in a hard case. Farmers there spent thousands of years saving seed from their best plants until the ear grew into the cob we know. Hanging cobs by their pulled-back husks is one of the oldest ways to store it, up off the floor where air can dry the kernels and mice have a harder time. A bunch of red and gold ones hangs from the beam of an old barn here, with fall color through the open door. No two kernels in the dried corn jigsaw puzzle look quite the same.