Popcorn, Yellow, SuperPail

We do offer organic yellow popcorn here, however.

This conventional/non-organic yellow "butterfly" popcorn grain is triple-cleaned and perfect for popping and baking purposes, including grinding for corn meal or corn flour.

Convenient & safe storage

Our popcorn comes in six-gallon buckets (or pails... another word for the same container). Net weight is 45 lbs. for the conventional yellow popcorn. When you store popcorn at home, it needs to be protected in a couple of ways. First, it needs to be protected from a variety of little critters who'd like to get to it before you do. Weevils and rodents, for example. You also need to protect your popcorn from picking up excessive additional moisture, which can be drawn from the atmosphere. The buckets our popcorn comes in provide full protection against these storage risks. They have airtight gasket-sealed lids, Mylar liners, and oxygen absorber packets that remove the oxygen from the air in the bucket after we put the lid on. The O2 absorbers leave an atmosphere of nitrogen in the bucket, because air consists almost entirely of oxygen and nitrogen. (The oxygen absorber packets themselves are completely food-safe, being made of powdered iron and salt, which are kept separate from the product itself.) Our buckets safely lock out pests, and biological processes are put "on hold" in the Mylar protected, oxygen-free nitrogen atmosphere, so your popcorn enjoys complete peace and quiet until you want to use it.

Beat oxidation

In whole-grain foods, the plant's cellular walls protect nutrients from oxidation. The process of oxidation begins to occur as soon as grain is ground, exposing the cell's contents to oxygen in the air. Flour that is several days (or more) old, has been exposed to oxygen that inevitably diminishes its nutritional value. The way to get full nutrition from whole grain foods is to mill them when you need them, right in your kitchen. Modern high-speed grain mills make it fast and easy to enjoy the freshest, best tasting and most nutritious food imaginable!

Super-cleaned

All of our popcorn is triple-cleaned to ensure purity and protect your grain mill from any foreign objects. (Popcorn that isn't sufficiently cleaned may contain small stones that will damage or destroy a grain mill... not to mention that you don't want such things in your food!)

Non-GMO

All of Pleasant Hill Grain's whole grain products are natural (non-GMO).

History & Uses

Popcorn ( zea mays everta) is a good source of fiber, has few calories, and contains no saturated fats. Yellow popcorn has more fiber, less starch and fewer carbohydrates than white popcorn has. Carotene gives this grain its yellow color and is a good source of vitamin A. Popped yellow popcorn is larger and sturdier than popped white popcorn, and for these reasons theaters typically pop yellow popcorn. All popcorn is gluten-free.

Native American tribes enjoyed popcorn and used it for decorating headdresses, corsages, making spiced and herbal snacks, beer, and even soup! Christopher Columbus allegedly brought popcorn to Europe in the late 15th century, and it wasn't until 1912 that movie theaters adopted the snack.

Although movie theaters and pre-packaged microwaveable popcorn has given the grain an unhealthy reputation, homemade popcorn can be quite healthful, and healthful doesn’t mean bland. Popcorn can be delicious when seasoned and customized to your liking. Each one cup serving containing 1 gram each of fiber and protein, 6 grams of carbohydrates, only 31 calories, and just a trace of fat. If lightly seasoned with a dash of salt, chili powder, or garlic powder, it becomes a healthful, satisfying snack.

Popcorn is grown similarly to other corn. It isn’t harvested until the kernels are hard and dry. When popcorn is ready for harvesting the hydration is at 16-20%. Once harvested, kernels are allowed to dry for around nine months, until the hydration is down to 14%, which is ideal popping. The United States is the top producer of popcorn worldwide, and most of it is grown in the Midwestern "corn belt," which stretches from Nebraska and Kansas east to Ohio to Kentucky.

Popcorn has a hard hull that encases the internal moisture, and when popcorn kernels are heated the moisture inside releases, creating a ‘pop!’ as the kernel expands. Because the hull is so hard, stone burr grain mills are unable to grind popcorn, but steel burr and impact burr grain mills will grind popcorn to any texture from cracked grain, to meal, to fine flour.

Have you seen popcorn garland wrapped around a Christmas tree? It’s a charming old-fashioned way to decorate for the holiday. You can make this decoration at home by air popping yellow or white popcorn, letting the popped corn sit for a day or two (so it becomes less fragile), and using a sewing needle with white thread to string the popcorn into a garland!

Some popcorn is marketed as “hulless”, implying that when popped it wouldn’t have the dark, hard kernel inside. Unfortunately, there’s really no such thing as hulless popcorn, and this is just a marketing ploy. The hull of popcorn makes up the outer part of the kernel and without it kernels couldn’t pop.

Popcorn makes a tasty, inexpensive, healthful, whole-grain snack when popped on the stovetop or in an air popper. After sprinkling on a bit of sea salt, and maybe paprika too, try squeezing fresh lime juice over your snack, or tossing it with fresh dill and chives!

In addition to the non-organic yellow popcorn shown on this page, we also offer organic yellow popcorn.