In just 100 days, this (orange) corn variety emerges. A unique blend of Argentine and Uruguayan landraces, carefully selected in TN by Joshua Gochenour, boasting insect resistance, virus resistance, and a vibrant orange hue indicating high carotene content. Ears grow up to 8 inches on stalks reaching 5-8 feet. The kernels display a bright orange color inside and out, so distinct that Farm and Sparrow bakery in North Carolina reported customers mistaking it for cheddar cheese in their baked bread! Its name, roughly translated, echoes as ‘Southern Unrefined.’ Find around 158 seeds in this small packet (42 g).

The name ‘Cateto’ carries historical connotations:

• In Portuguese, ‘Cateto’ often describes brown rice.
• In Spain and potentially in Latin America, it’s akin to the English terms ‘redneck’ or ‘hick.’

Cateto corn varieties were collected across Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile from the 1940s to the 1970s by various national and international organizations. These strains of orange flint corn were initially identified as ‘Cateto’ in Brazil. Spanish-speaking farmers commonly refer to them as ‘anaranjado’, ‘colorado’, ‘amarillo’, or ‘duro’ (‘Camelia’ in Chile). In Portuguese, ‘Sulino,’ meaning ‘Southern,’ is occasionally used, as many field corns from Uruguay, Argentina, and southern Brazil were collected with this suffix.

The origin of the name ‘Cateto’ remains obscure. It potentially described grains associated with lower-class individuals and deemed unrefined. Traditionally, certain cultures viewed whiteness in grains as a mark of sophistication, which might have influenced the labeling of orange field corns as ‘Cateto’ in Brazil.