Fresh Corn – A Family Project

The corn came in yesterday. What that means is a big project. Unlike other garden vegetables, corn comes in all at one time. There is no negotiating with corn that is ready to be picked. It has the upper hand. It tells you when, not the other way around. It is a BIG undertaking to “put up” corn. It is a whole production.

When I got to my brother’s house last night, I found the production in full swing. There was an assembly line operation going on. The shucking had already been done, so there were piles of corn everywhere. There were two adults silking the corn, one standing over a fish cooker on the back porch, two cutting the blanched corn off the cob after it cooled and one chasing the children. I fell into place silking. Two of us were silking using plastic dish scrubbers. My bother had a better idea. He was using the water hose on a jet setting. It ripped the silks right off the corn in record time. He was in the back yard, which became flooded in the process of corn cleaning. Fortunately, he was perched in a lawn chair right next to the kiddie pool where his granddaughter was overseeing the operation from the vantage point of the swimming pool. Every now and then, she’d call for a hosing down. He’d turn the hose on her, then go back to silking the corn. My niece’s toddler was weaving in and out of the activity when her grandmother wasn’t quick enough to catch her. There were four generations involved in the process- my mother, her children, her grandchildren and great grandchildren. Where else, but in rural Southwest Alabama and her sister Deep South states are you likely to find an operation like this going on at the Simmer Solstice? Druids celebrated by dancing in the moonlight. We celebrated by wrestling with corn. I think the corn won.