What is masa and how does it come to be that an installation company in Blackfoot, Idaho got together with a huge company in Mexico that processes corn? I was talking to a friend from the Idaho Farm Bureau the other day and he told me about another Farm Bureau employee that knew about a company in Blackfoot that had sold a huge amount of agricultural equipment to the Gruman Corporation out of Mexico. I was on the story in a flash because it was good news for Idaho and good news for our economy. I reached the second Farm Bureau guy and he said he really didn’t know much about it…but call Premiere Technology in Blackfoot. I reached Jim Warner, a commercial sales guy, on his cell phone. He told me that Premiere doesn’t sell agricultural equipment, they install industrial equipment and did a big job for the Gruman Company. “I’d have to show you equipment layout. There’s chip fryers, there’s what they call a masa system, that’s how they start a tortilla chip, it starts as a masa flour.”

 OK…this thing’s clarifying…slightly. First, Masa is the backbone of Latin American cuisine. It is produced by soaking dried field corn in a lime solution and grinding it into a fine paste. This paste is used in foods like tortillas, tamales, and sweet fried foods.

 So a company in Blackfoot, installed a bunch of equipment for a company out of Mexico that processes mega amounts of American grown corn…which then makes this story agriculturally relevant…I think.