Grains
Corn, Wheat, Rye, Oats

Quotes for Gardeners, Farmers,
and Lovers of the Green Way

Compiled by Michael P. Garofalo

And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or
two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew
before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service
to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.
- Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels

Oh, I have walked in Kansas
Through many a harvest field,
And piled the sheaves of glory there
And down the wild rows reeled:

Each sheaf a little yellow sun,
A heap of hot-rayed gold;
Each binder like Creation's hand
To mold suns, as of old.
- Vachel Lindsay, Kansas

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As a whole, the temple represents a deified mountain - a place of creation,
a source of life-giving water (such as a cave, spring, stream, or waterfall),
and birthplace of the sacred maize plant. The head of this mountain deity,
which combines the attributes of both mother and father, is depicted on
the lower central part of the roof crest, with a cleft in its forehead from
which maize sprouts.
- Mayan Temple in Copan, Mexico

Sex is good, but not as good as fresh, sweet corn.
Garrison Keillor

The greatest service which can be rendered any country
is to add a useful plant to its culture.
- Thomas Jefferson

An ear of corn is 80% water.

Native Americans all over the U.S. and Canada use a term they call the Three Sisters
to describe the Native American way of life through the gardening technique of
planting corn, beans and squash together on the same mound. These Three Sisters - corn,
beans and squash supplement and compliment each other. The vines of the bean plant
grow up the corn stalk. The huge leaves of the squash vines keep the ground moist for
all of the roots. The nutritious vitamins from each of the plants escapes into the soil
so that they each benefit from one another.
- Deborah Champlain

Grass - Quotes for Gardeners

Certain cereals and pulses (legumes) were domesticated in very ancient times. In about 8000 BC in the Fertile Crescent of the Near and Middle East (present-day Syria, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Jordan, Israel), wheats, barley, lentil, pea, bitter vetch, chick-pea, and possibly faba bean, were brought into cultivation by the Neolithic people. These crops spread from the point of origin. Archaeological evidence indicates that the wheats, and some of the legumes, had reached Greece by 6000 BC and evidence of their presence within that millennium has been found in the Danube Basin, the Nile valley, and the Indian subcontinent (Pakistan). Dispersal continued throughout Europe, the crops reaching Britain and Scandinavia in 4,000-2,000 BC.
- The New Oxford Book of Food Plants, xv, 1997, by J. G . Vaughan and C. A. Geissler.

Good millet is known at the harvest.
- Proverb from Kenya

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Links and References

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More Quotes

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Gardeners