Some things about corn (also known as maize): Maize was engineered from teosinte between 7,500 and 12,000 years ago in the Tehuacan Valley of Mexico. An influential 2002 study by Matsuoka et al. has demonstrated that, rather than the multiple independent domestications model, all maize arose from a single domestication in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago. Maize reproduces sexually each year. Come to Austin Corn Lovers Fiesta this Friday, September 30th, at The Lost Well and hear Chasca play their corny show and then we can all reproduce sexually in honor of that most phallic (and mystical ) of staple foods, MAIZE!!!