Ember Corsman

Ok, I love the enthusiasm but before the standard chorus kicks off, let me start by saying I have no interest in eating purslane. The flavor & texture make my stomach turn. Also, even if I did my garden produces far more than any family COULD eat.

What I would love to know, is how much of an issue is purslane weed wise? I know some weeds are greedier than others. Is this something that I can allow to go bonkers and cover up my soil without it sucking too much water/nutrients from the plants I actually want?

I've been fighting it by pulling it and tossing it to my hens who seem to largely agree with my palatability assessment. And of course there are a million foot wide plants again in a week. It feels silly.

Thanks!
I'm in western Washington, so very dry summers, very wet winters if that matters.

I 2nd (3rd?) The vote for painted mountain! I'm up at the top of Washington state, nestled close to the mountains and so far painted mountain is the only variety that reliably ripens for us, though it still needs to finish drying in the house near the stove, but that is an us problem since here things really start getting wet about a week before the corn is ready!  Even cascade and other varieties touted for their early season tend to be a couple weeks behind it.

It is an unusual ingredient to work with but I love it. Our homemade tortillas smell like popcorn which was a fun surprise and the polenta ends up pink :)  You will find that flour corn is a very different beast from Flint or dent. Flour corn grinds down mostly to a very fine powder with some coarser chunks made from the outer coat. Flint/dent looks more like the cornmeal you buy at the store with the tiny almost translucent shards. Both are great, just good in different ways.

Another fun thing about PM (I sounds like a real fanatic at this point, I blame my mostly failed attempt at other varieties this past summer) is that if you like to save seeds it comes with so much natural variety that over a couple years of careful seed choosing from your best plants you can really gear the corn to your particular locale. We've been saving seeds for 5 years and have already noticed a significant shift towards the characteristics that are important for us.

Aaaannnd of course, it is the prettiest thing out there. Not only are the kernels every color/pattern known to corn, the cobs, husks and silks also show incredible variation which I get unreasonably excited about :D