Tietz Family Farms
Not all kernels are alike: Shaman Blue (from left), yellow, white, calico and Ruby Red.
To many, the phrase “healthy snack food” is an oxymoron. But Randy Tietz knows that’s not always the case, especially when it comes to popcorn.
“Popcorn is an extremely healthy food, packed with fiber and nutrients,” says Tietz. He’s a sixth-generation owner and operator of Tietz Family Farms in Watertown, in the family since 1843. (There is now a seventh generation.)
Tietz is a major popcorn purveyor at the Dane County Farmers’ Market — and elsewhere. Bags of their unpopped corn also are available at Brennan’s Cellars, Capitol Centre Market and The Old Fashioned.
As snack foods go, popcorn stands alone. It’s a whole grain food whose high fiber aids in slow digestion. When air-popped and eaten plain, popcorn weighs in at 30 calories and one gram of fiber per cup. The hull is rich in polyphenols, antioxidants that prevent cell damage.
It’s high-fat toppings like too much butter or cheese that add calories. But flavored instead with a little salt and some nutritional yeast, popcorn’s health benefits add up.
Corn’s domestication reaches back 9,000 years to Mexico, and evidence suggests that indigenous people in Peru were popping corn as early as 4700 B.C. In fact, popcorn was the first form of corn consumed.
“If naturally dried and stored properly, popcorn can have an almost indefinite shelf life,” explains Tietz, who naturally air-dries his crop. “Popcorn has been found at archaeological sites that are thousands of years old and it has still popped!”
While all popcorn is corn, not all corn can be popped. The strain Zea mays everta consists of a germ, an endosperm and pericarp, or hull. Each kernel contains a miniscule water droplet stored inside a circle of soft starch, which is what enables it to pop.
When kernels are heated to 212 degrees, the droplet vaporizes, turning the surrounding starch into a tiny gelatinous mass. At about 347 degrees the pressure inside the hull reaches 135 pounds per square inch, which causes the hull to burst open, or “pop.”
Steam is released, the soft starch spills out and inflates to 40 or 50 times its original size, forming the characteristic white “flake” (yes, that is the technical term) we know as popcorn. The result is either a rounded “mushroom” shape, which is more durable, or the multi-winged “butterfly” shape, considered more flavorful.
Tietz first started growing popcorn in 2006, committing one acre to yellow and white varieties of what the family hoped would be a profitable crop. The popcorn sold well, so they began increasing the acreage and adding different varieties to its popcorn portfolio. Several types of popcorn — specifically black, mini-white, strawberry and mini-blue — didn’t do well either in cultivation or sales and were eventually abandoned.
“Much of our business growth is relatively flat year to year, especially for commodity crops like corn and soybeans,” Tietz says. “But the popcorn business has been growing 10 to 15 percent annually, and we’ll continue to increase our acreage with that growth.”
Of their 220 total cultivated acres, the Tietz family devotes 40 to popcorn, the rest to standard farm crops.
Over the years, they have honed their popcorn selection to six distinct varieties:
• White hull-less popcorn produces tender, fluffy flakes with a melt-in-your-mouth quality.
• Ruby Red popcorn produces small, white flakes that are crisp, yet tender, with a light nutty flavor and delicate crunch.
• Shaman Blue, an heirloom variety, creates large puffs in tight clusters, yielding crunchy white flakes with a subtle sweetness and natural corn flavor.
• Yellow hull-less popcorn, the most familiar type, offers tender flakes with a strong corn flavor.
• Mushroom corn, another flavorful white variety, pops into the more durable rounded shapes.
• Calico corn, a natural hybrid similar in appearance to Indian corn, contains a little bit of everything.
• White hull-less popcorn is the family’s most popular seller and accounts for 12 acres of the 40-acre crop. It’s followed by Ruby Red and yellow hull-less (7 acres each), Shaman Blue and Calico (5 acres each), and mushroom (4 acres.)
“My favorite is the yellow hull-less because it combines the best flavors and textures of all varieties, but I have been known to switch preferences,” Tietz says. “Many of our patrons have told us that our popcorn is the best ever! We think so, too.”
