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Through his quest to reconnect to his roots, Barnes isolated several traditional strains of seeds that fell to the wayside when his ancestors traveled to what’s now Oklahoma in the 1800s. Through years of selective growing, Barnes grew corn that looks bejeweled, creating a colorful celebration of native heirloom varieties of corn.

Related: Plant a Wish Restores Native Plant Habitats Around America

Barnes didn’t hoard the wealth, however, sharing corn seeds with Native American tribe elders and other growers he encountered. According to SeedBroadcast, “…he was able to reintroduce specific corn types to the elders of those tribes, and this helped their people in reclaiming their cultural and spiritual identities. Their corn was, to them, literally the same as their blood line, their language, and their sense of who they were.”

One such grower was Greg Schoen. The two became friends in the early ’90s, and Schoen took the rainbow corn to a new level, creating hybrids by planting the rainbow corn next to typical yellow corn.

Schoen eventually passed the seeds to the non-profit organization Native Seeds/SEARCH, who now sell the seeds online. They also protect the seeds in a bank containing around 2,000 rare varieties. Native Seeds/SEARCH began during a project to design sustainable food sources with Native Americans. They continually heard that people wanted to plant the seeds their grandparents did, so the organization started to protect “endangered traditional seeds” and the diversity of plants present specifically in the American Southwest.

The fabulous corn kernels possess an outer layer tougher than most, which means they aren’t the best for backyard corn-on-the-cob chomping, but they can be either ground for cornmeal or popped like popcorn. You can purchase a packet of the seeds for $4.95 here, and profits go right back to the organization to continue their conservation efforts.

Via My Modern Met and Lost At E Minor

Images via Glass Gem Corn Facebook