A Grainy Problem Trivia Quiz

Answer: A maize maze

Corn, or maize, is an "amaizing" product. Not only can it be used as a food, certain parts of it can also be utilised in some alternative medicines, and other parts can be used in the manufacture of various chemical products such as plastics and glues.

It is also being increasingly used as a fuel additive or replacement in some areas, different strands of it are used as ornamental garden plants, and, beginning in Pennsylvania in 1993, it is now used to create fast growing mazes as tourist attractions. You'll be all forlorn in a maze of corn.

Answer: Talc

How awful is that? To obtain white rice from the natural plant, the outer husks of the grain are first removed. That gives us brown rice, a grain that is full of natural goodness and health giving properties. To obtain white rice, however, the rest of the husk and the germ (a very important part of the food) is also removed.

Then, to make the rice appear visually appealing to consumers with an eye out for the aesthetic appeal of food, the rice is polished either with glucose, or the dangerous product of talc.

In spite of the health warnings against the use of this method, it continues to be applied in many countries. Talc, in fact, consumed in this manner, has been linked to stomach cancer. Just to make your day a completely cheerful one, rice also contains very small amounts of arsenic. So go to town, and keep it brown.

Answer: Wheat

Wheat is another amazing grain and the third most produced in the world after corn and rice. It has a higher protein content however than the first two grains, and its trading figures around the world far outweigh almost all other crops combined. It is prone to several diseases and common bunt, also known as stinking smut, is just one of these. Wheat with this fungus is rather unappealing to look at to say the least, and has a very unpleasant odour. Fortunately it can be controlled with fungicides.

Here's a rather sad figure for you: In poorer and less industrialised countries of the world, over ten percent of wheat production is lost due to poor storage and transport difficulties. In India alone, it is estimated that their annual wheat loss, if attended to, could feed a staggering 100 million people for an entire year. How neat is wheat?

Answer: Tibet

Indeed, barley has been given the credit for helping this small country raise mighty armies many centuries ago. It is an ideal crop to be grown in colder climates. Tibetans today make barley into a product known as tsampas by mixing the grain with their salty yak butter tea. That tea, incidentally, provides lots of caloric energy and helps keeps chapped lips at bay. Beer is sometimes used instead of yak butter.

This doesn't help with the chapped lips one iota, but who cares...hic. Two other interesting facts about barley are that the early Roman gladiators were called Hordearii, an old word meaning barley-eaters; and the structure we know today as a barn is a derivative of its original meaning of barley-house. So get on your Harley and buy some barley.

Answer: Africa

Sorghum is cultivated in warm climates, and does very well in semi-arid lands, where it is a blessing for poor and rural peoples who live there. For some it is the main sources of sustenance and can be adapted to produce many different dishes - even including a form of popcorn.

The plant is also used as a food for their livestock as well. In better-off countries, it is used as poultry and cattle feed and in brewing ale, as wallboards for housing, for biodegradable packaging, and in the US in particular (where, sorrowfully, it was introduced by slaves transported from Africa) as a fuel source.

In that country, as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, they set a production target for 2012 of an amazing eight billion gallons of ethanol each year.

More, mum, with the sorghum.

Answer: Pearl millet

Pearl millet grows well in most climates but particularly so in semi-arid soils. With fertilisation, however, it is much more effective and can yield up to four times the amount it normally would without fertilisation. It comes in different colours and different sizes, and the height of the plant can range from eighteen inches to an incredible twelve feet. Don't kill it - eat millet.

Answer: Cats

Marketed as cat grass, this product is simply another name for oat seeds. Cats are said to be quite partial to it. Oats grow best in temperate climates. They are used in breakfast foods, cakes and bread, as stockfeed, and in the manufacture of beer and stout.

Interestingly, they can be planted and then, when grown, ploughed back into the ground as a natural fertiliser. They are also used regularly in the production of some beauty aids, their straw is excellent as bedding for livestock, and they are even utilised in some medical properties.

They are one miraculous grain really, not only for their vitamin content, but also for their ability to lower cholesterol. They are also very filling, so are excellent in helping keep hunger pangs at bay for dieters, the plants have relatively few diseases, and they're great for keeping weeds out because of their thick and vigorous growth. Don't be goats, eat your oats.

Answer: No

Wheat is a grass cereal, but buckwheat belongs to the herb family of plants. It is, however, classified as a grain, so work that one out. This food plant was first cultivated domestically in Asia in approximately 6,000 BC, and from there, its use gradually spread to the rest of the world.

Its value as a food source is its rapid growing cycle when compared to the other grains. It is ready to be harvested approximately eleven weeks after planting. Once Russia was the world leader in production of this grain, but by the turn of the 21st century, China had well and truly taken over the lead in this regard. Buckwheat is used as a food product, ground cover and a natural fertiliser.

It is ideal for people who cannot absorb other grain products - such as those with coeliac disease - and it used in the manufacture of various medical goods.

A pleasant tasting honey can be produced from buckwheat, the seeds are also used to make beer (isn't everything?), and, comically so, it is even used to stuff upholstery. So be a duck, Pete, and buy some buckwheat.

Answer: The universe

The Dogon peoples of Mali hold the belief that Amma, who created the entire universe and everything in it, did so with a single seed of the fonio plant which he located inside the egg of the world. So what came first, the fonio or the egg? Fonio is an excellent and rapid growing plant for this part of the world. Overall, it too is used as a food product and to make alcohol. If only oh, you had some fonio.

Answer: Ergot

Though this is still disputed by some scientists, ergot has been popularly associated with the Salem witch trials in America in the 17th century. When humans and animals eat rye which has been contaminated by the fungus ergot, they can experience convulsions, rotting tissue on their fingers and toes, miscarriages, hallucinations and even death.

In Salem, when this took place, more than one hundred people accused of being witches were imprisoned, two hundred more were accused, at least twenty-four were put to death, and five died in prison.

It would be several centuries before this disease in rye was classified. Just as a passing note, the drug LSD is obtained from the ergot fungus. Normally, rye is used as a food product, in making some alcoholic drinks, in the manufacture of various alternative medicines - but check the rye before you buy.