Monday, August 07, 2006

Corn Capers

I have a huge mess here in the kitchen, but decided I'd rather blog about what we've been doing rather than cleaning up what we've been doing.


David's comment: "Dad, we're harvesting corn like cordwood!"


After all the canning we did yesterday afternoon, I was looking forward to a sort of low key day. The jars of beans and carrots needed to be cleaned off and put away, collected herbs dried, clothes washed and hung out on the line, then taken off and folded, bread to be baked, zucchini to be dealt with ... I actually did a lot of the above, and then just as I was thinking about making supper, one of the boys came in and said something like, "Mom, we just picked 156 ears of corn!" Here we went again. I am still cooking the corn, and then it has to be cooled, bagged, and frozen. I don't have a lot of room left in our freezer, but corn is just one of those things that tastes much better when frozen rather than canned. It's a huge treat in the middle of winter, when corn on the cob is just a dream. We had the whole family involved in washing and cutting corn off the cobs while I was making supper, and now it's processing time and clean-up time. Needless to say, the floor needs a good scrubbing as well!

6 comments:

Marci said...

You are so right about how good it tastes in winter. We took corn as one of our dishes to a family get together. My brother commented... "You had to have put this up yourself. This corn is too good to be store bought."

I have a huge bowl that is blue spatterware. Joshua took a 2 X 4 and using his router put a groove on each end that fits over the sides of the bowl. He nailed a big nail up through the bottom. We smack the corn down on that, and cut off the kernels. Most of them fly into the bowl and not all around because the bowl is so big. I always love to have the help with the corn. I am usually the one who puts it in and takes it out of the water. Michael transports the corn to where it needs to go. Joshua cuts it off the cob. Michael also packs it into bags, and I help with that in between. It gets done a whole lot faster. Our animals (goats, cows, sheep and pigs) all LOVE the husks.

Anonymous said...

Hi Lynn, I just got caught up on all of your blog stories. Very interesting! It has been fun following your activities through your family blogs. Enjoyed the pictures-- am still waiting for pictures of the Farm/City Bartlett's week. (from Ed&R).
The harvest time brings back many wonderful memories of my time on the Farm in Minnesota. Truck loads of Corn to process for family of 100+ people. String beans ++++ etc.

Plan to attend the MacDonald Family Meeting, at a nearby Church tomorrow night.
Love to you all, Aunt Linda

Lori said...

You are an inspiration to me!
When I lived at home 20 plus years ago my mom would (harvest) corn. It tasted so good throughout the winter months. I have gotten lazy in my old age. I was happy to have made my own Jelly. : )

Clara....in TN said...

Looks like a lot of fun and a lot of hard work. I know how good the corn will taste this winter. Enjoyed your pictures!

Lynn Bartlett said...

Marci,
The bowl idea sounds great! We are still getting used to things, and I'm looking forward to actually making chores easier with handy gadgets. Thanks for the idea.

Hi Linda,
Thanks for checking out our blogs! We had a very special time with the rest of the Bartletts, and too bad you couldn't have joined us. You'll have to let us know how the concert went; it won't be long before the MacDonalds are here!

Thanks for your comments, Lori. I checked out your blog as well!

Clara, thanks for stopping by. I just wish I knew how to post pictures myself -- I depend on my boys to do it for me! Maybe some day things will slow down enough that I can have them teach me to do it.

Anonymous said...

Hi Jiim and Lynn,
This is Daymon Kukuk back in Fargo again. I noticed that your chickens were not doing well. Feed them "Chop". That is what we did back on the farm. You can get chop as your local elevator. It is corn, peas, barley, wheat, etc. all mixed up together and chopped. Your grain elevator specialists should know what that is. Then feed it to the chickens with a little water added and they should bulk up on that. And when it comes time to eat chicken you have a chicken that is big and grain fed, organic. Now if you want big chickens get the leghorns. They can get to the size of a small turkey. But their barnyard behavior is bad, even for barnyard behavior. So with the size of your family a large chicken would do good.

LOL the life your living now is the life I grew up with. I know all about that stuff. Good to see you guys again even if it is only in pictures. If you have any other problems, you just contact "The Phantom Pharmer, Daymon". LOL Enjoy and have fun. Talk to you later.