Harvesting, Round 3

Nothing like ending a busy week on a busy note ...

Last Friday, in the midst of everything else, I had the opportunity to pick fresh sweet corn. So I did. I picked a lot of it. Almost 170 ears of it, in fact. While that may not seem like a lot, when you consider that there are only four of us, and that we had to freeze it all, it's a lot of corn.

We started the morning with a few local errands, dropping off tomatoes at my in-laws, ran to the store to pick up a wedding gift, and since the kids were pushing up against the Terror Zone, we headed home. A message was waiting, and corn was ready. So, since I didn't really want to traipse around a corn field with a 4 year old and a 2 year old, I attempted to find a baby sitter, to no avail. Meanwhile, I went upstairs to change from good pants to not so good pants, and my most dear, most darling daughter, decided to empty the very full drawer to the paper shredder and re-create a ticker tape parade in my living room. They then proceeded to track it through the entire first floor in their attempts to clean it up. And, we were under a Severe Storm Watch. So I packed them up and took them to my MIL's office, with a promise that if they got too bad, she would call me and I would come in from the field.

We got there and the kids got their picnic ready and I drove out to the field. They had to shut down an irrigation system so I could get through, so now I feld guilty because I was actually slowing down work in order to get some corn. Maybe I would take a few less ears.

I must say that there is something about the smell of acres of corn, at the end of summer, on a warm and humid day. I love it! It was so peaceful, just walking around out there in the corn, and it was very relaxing in an odd sort of way.

Another very cool thing, is that I heard the rain before I felt it. It started to drizzle, and I could hear it hit the corn stalks before it hit me.

So I made a more than a dozen trips into the field and picked on the way out (I remembered this from last year - pick on the way out, when your arms are empty, not on your way in) ... I loaded up the trunk and headed back in to get the kids.

Once I got everybody home, I realized that I had a boat load of corn. Wow.

My mother in law ended up coming over that night to help me put the corn up, while my husband and the kids went to meet the out of town grand parents at the hotel they are staying at to go swimming at the pool. Good idea, otherwise I feel like I'd still be dealing with corn.

The final tally:

89 ears of corn cut off the cob and frozen into serving size Ziploc bags
36 ears of corn frozen on the cob and frozen in Food Saver bags
8 ears of corn given to the neighbor
6 ears of corn eaten Friday night
2 ears of corn thrown out because they were "yucky"
8 ears of corn eaten on Saturday when my Dad & Sister arrived
22 ears of corn given to my Day Care Provider, because thats what you do

A grand total of 171 ears of corn picked. That's a lot of corn.

If the freezer goes out, we're screwed. It'll be blueberries and corn everywhere.

But, I did make a pie for Saturday night when my Dad was here. It was a good one too!