He Who Walks Behind the Rows

For the record, I like corn.

Now that we have that out of the way, I plant several types of corn. Blue dent, bloody butcher, sweet corn and popcorn. I use them for feed as well as in my kitchen. I am partial to the dent corn myself.

But how? How can you grow so many types of corn without cross pollination problems?

Ah yes, that conundrum. Many tell you that corn must be separated a half mile to a full mile to prevent cross pollination. I have a large garden but not that big. Large, edible sunflowers have become my secret to many garden dilemmas. For starters, plant your corn in blocks rather than rows. This will allow the corn to pollinate each other by brushing up against one another ( hmmmm corn gropping) rather than relying on wind or bugs. Then plant the sunflowers to help block any potential wind carried cross pollination. I have been able to do this successfully for several years, and have seen no change in my corn.

I also plant in clay, without adding topsoil. Clay soil has lots of good in it, large plants thrive well in it. After several years of planting corn and sunflowers, and tilling under the stalks, my clay soil changes and small seed crops can then be grown there. A tip, if you fish, throw the leftovers from you cleaned fish at the base of your corn stalks. They love it.

Corn is another easy to grow food, as I said earlier, popcorn is a mainstay in traditional homesteads. Just don't bunch them up together as I have seen other suggests. The quality and quantity of corn you get is greatly reduced. These plants do fight, and none tend to win. You will end up with very small cobs and kernels, not worth seed saving.

Baby oil rubbed on the is as soon as they appear, does greatly reduce the amount of worms eating through your corn cobs.

I have a post on the nutritional values and why I think organizations warning people off raising their own corn is hog wash, over here. Becuase I feel most people merely tell you what they think you want to hear and what might sell their books. And if you click on the link at the top of my blog, recipes, you will find several ways to prepare corn.

KoЯn, no I mean Corn

Choke choke again, I thought my demons were my friends. . . Sorry I have the song stuck in my head. It was on Large's MP3 player. I'm trying to hold it together. . .

I get feeds from several groups. A couple of natural and organics food news groups and no GMO gardeners club. And the uptick of the anti-corn establishment has greatly increased over the last few months. Not only are they saying to stay away from HFCS and GMO corns, but all corn.

My favorite catch phrase has got to be "Corn has no nutritional value". Replace corn with KoЯn and I would agree with you.

It can be a bit difficult to get the truth about corn. I have seen several sites claiming that corn has B12. However it lacks that vitamin. It also does not block B12. Problems with over eating corn have been linked to malnutrition in countries where maize has been introduce. Corn tightly binds the amino acids lysine and niacin so they are not readily available. Native Americans noticed an issue and began mixing their corn meal with lye. Hello Hominy! How ya doing Grits?

With anything else, moderation is more than just essential. Having a well balanced diet is key to health.

So all these groups are warning off people from growing their own corn. Sad really. A juicy cob of corn with a decent bbq is a treat to say the least. And if you are warning them off of corn, you really should warn people off soy. GMO is a GMO after all. People rarely talk about the evils of soy GMOs. Let's switch our milk! bah humbug. Grow your own soy if you want to eat it, just like corn.

Confession time, I have corn syrup, I use corn syrup. I make candies and pies that my children eat out of corn syrup GASP!!! Not only is the syrup I use made in the US, but it is organic and GMO free. It isn't completely evil, as long as you use restraint and use it moderately. I am a little uneasy about people clamoring for others to use their influence to force themselves to use their own self restraint and their own brains.

I digress, back to not growing your own corn. This would make sense if you only have a small garden and eat lots of processed foods. You are eating a lot of corn that way. But if you grow the majority of your own food, or you rarely eat processed foods, then neglecting this cereal is doing yourself a misfortune. Let us proceed with the ravings of corn.

Sweet yellow corn, nummy, the joys of. . .

Vitamin A 355IU 7% DV
Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol)0.8 mg 4% DV
Vitamin K 0.5 mcg 1% DV
Thiamin 0.6mg 43% DV
Riboflavin 0.3 mg 20% DV
Niacin 6.0 mg 30% DV
Vitamin B6 1.0 mg 52% DV
Folate 31.5 mcg 8% DV
Pantothenic Acid 0.7 mg 7% DV


Calcium11.6 mg 1%DV
Iron 4.5 mg 25%DV
Magnesium 211mg 53%DV
Phosphorus 349 mg 35%DV
Potassium476 mg 14%DV
Sodium58.1 mg 2%DV
Zinc 3.7 mg 24%DV
Copper 0.5 mg 26%DV
Manganese 0.8 mg 40% DV
Selenium 25.7 mcg 37% DV

Now it does contain 606 calories per 166g, and 7.9 grams of fat (good for you fat) but it also contains 48% of your DV fiber. Yellow corn also contains carotenoid lutein, a phytochemical with antioxidant properties that can lower the risk of age related vision loss. Not nearly as high as that in green leafy vegetables such as spinach, but is still a decent source. Corn has a high beta – cryptoxanthin content, high levels of dietary beta-cryptoxanthin and were associated with reduced risk of lung cancer.

As for Maize (which several of us homesteader grow) as an energy source, it compares favorably with root and tubers, and it is similar in energy value to dried legumes. It is also excellent source of carbohydrates and is complete in nutrients compared to other cereals.

Another worry is soil depletion. Most people by now have heard of crop rotation. What one plant takes away another can give back. With corn, sorghum or soy works well in rotation.

Corn is not the end all of evil.

Growing and/or eating it is completely up to you.

I choose to grow corn, and to use a non GMO corn syrup for that special occasion treat.

This post brought to you by Phelan and her 2 cents.

popcorn

Do you realize how long it takes to clean 3 lbs of popcorn kernel off of the cob? No? Well neither do I, because as I was doing it, I was lost into a deep dark mind numb that is the RNC pre-show. Not in the mood to talk politics today, let's just say that Joe Lieberman and I have a lot in common. I have filled my green glass Ball jar. The one I keep my popcorn in. I guess I will be making a lot of popcorn balls for Christmas.

Popcorn is a great mainstay on the homestead. You can grow a lot in a little space. The stalks grow 1-4 ears on them. It is a wonderful whole grain that helps with energy. It also makes a great animal feed if you plan on growing your own. 1 1/2 rows of the stuff is enough for my family for 1 year. I still have 2 1/2 rows to pick. eek! What to do with all that popcorn? My 6 year old (turns 7 today!) informed me that under no uncertain terms, am I to give popcorn to a mouse. Because If I do that, he'll want to go to the movies. And who wants to go to the movies with a mouse!?! I agreed with him, and told him that rats are much more fun. (Phelan, pet rat keeper)

There are all kinds of things you can do with popcorn, and you don't have to keep it as a snack. We have it with our dinners. You can pour a light pesto sauce over it, or mix it with fresh fruits and berries. Popcorn is a great thing to have on hand when you have a house full of boys. You'd be amazed how quickly their mouths stop emitting noise when full of popcorn.

oh popcorn, so much better then a gag.

Mother Nature, the Original Prankster

I walked out of my house yesterday, the humidity was like walking through a swimming pool. I know it is an adage that people complain about, but in Kansas, it really is the humidity not the heat. I did my morning chores, sweating. After a time, I decided to work inside, it was just too much. Around noon, I went outside to wait for the bus with my youngest son. He started pre-k yesterday. He did good, getting on that bus all by himself, but mommy. . . I had to remind myself that I too was a big girl, and if my 4 year old didn't cry, neither should I. And for the first time in 11 years, I was alone.

Around 3, I went back outside and it was cold! Needed a jacket cold. I went out and harvest my sunflower heads, and started on the popcorn. A neighbor pulled up and we chatted. She informed me that it was in the mid 60's. She was covered in goose bumps. I digress. She was wanting to give me her billy goat. We talked a bit about that, and she said she thought it was a Nubian. I told her to find out for sure, and I would take him.

Back to popcorn picking. I was going along just fine, and then it felt like the back of my finger had been burned by a cigarette. I pulled my had away from the corn stalk, and there was a bead of water siting on it. I wiped it away and suddenly it felt like someone was pulling my finger nail off. I whimpered and dropped what I was doing. I had no idea what was going on. I thought I might have been stung, but there wasn't a mark on me. My finger began to swell, and turned purple. Then a red ring formed around sickly pale flesh. I assumed that the bite or sting was there.

Once into the house I quickly made a baking soda paste and painted my finger with it. My hand was hurting down to my wrist by that time. I hollered at a friend of ours, that is staying with us, and told him what happened. He said it was a caterpillar. My mind went to those large green ones in Florida, that everyone would tell us, would kill us if we touched them. He laughed and said no, you don't have anything like that here. Thank goodness, I really didn't want to break out my husband's how to amputate (insert body part here) books.

The paste dried, I brushed it off, and the stinging isn't as bad today. The swelling is down, and I will be wearing gloves in the garden.

Oh, I didn't forget

Canned Corn! What a wonderful sickly sweet stench does that make. But it only lasts as long as you have corn to can, then it is gone and another smell will fill your kitchen, making you gag and wonder who eats this stuff.

Place whole kernels in your sterilized pint jars. Pour hot water over top, leaving a 1/2 inch head space. Place on lids, and pressure can at 10 lbs for 25 minutes. ( we really should discuss sea levels and canning)

Freezing your corn on the cob is simpler. Clean them up, shove in a bag and freeze. If you wash them before freezing, pat them dry.

Tomorrow we will talk about something much more important then corn, blueberry butter and Grape jam.

The Art of Corn Freezing, by the kernel

Hello, Kernel O. Corn here. You might remember me from such movies as Children of the Corn, King Corn, and Hybrid. These days I have taken a more serious roll in feeding your families, your livestock and even powering your cars. Today however I wish to broach on a subject that is crucially important to not only me, but to those families out there that wish to preserve my greatness.

Early in my youth, I discovered that I didn't care for freezing, as I baby you could place me in a freezer, and I would hold up just fine. But any older then that, and I would just emerge looking like I had gone out on a bender. But as an adult, freezing doesn't bother me as much. It's those knives that really grate my skin.

Long pinkie nails are for coke, long thumb nails are for corn. When you get through with me, and you see a person with 1 long thumb nail, you will be able to nod, and tell them that you understand, and it will all be over with soon. Since knives and fancy corn slicers tend to ripe at my flesh, I find comfort in that home preserver that is willing to get down and dirty, by slowly plucky 1 kernel off at a time. Yes, it does get under the nails, yes, one can explode on you. But with the limited amount of seemingly unreachable silk, and cob that you will find in the endeavour can be worth it. Ask my friend Phelan that has a gallon of perfect kernels in her freezer.

Once I have been removed, rinse me, and place me in the freezer on a piece of parchment paper, in a single depth. I suggest doing only a pound or 2 at a time, so that you don't run out of freezer room too quickly. After about an hour or so, you can place me in a container. After several hours, I should be nice and froze. Ready for just about anything.

This has been Kernel O. Corn, wishing you a sweet filled corny day.

The preceding does not reflect the views of this blog, nor it affiliates.

I see through corn colored glasses

Corn is beautiful. Until you have to spend hours processing it. Then it is the monster under the bed and you want to run screaming from it. Trust me when I say, running away screaming doesn't get the corn processed any quicker. Only causes the neighbors to talk about you a little bit more, and in harsher whispers.

The mineral oil on the silk trick did wonders for my corn this year. I have a sack full of gorgeously perfect corn in my freezer. However, the sneaky buggers went in through the side of a lot more of the corn. Organic growing can be a big old pain in the rear at times. My corn with the worm tracks through them must be cut away and the perfect kernels need to be canned. Oh what joy! I am just giddy with excitement, can you tell. Stupid silk that never seems to completely go away, fancy devices that are suppose to help things go easier, and back burning labor, even if you aren't doing any heavy lifting.

Corn is overrated.

I purchased a corn cutter. It is this yellow thing, with a metal band with one side serrated. This is suppose to make the work quicker and easier. But only if you want cream corn. The package doesn't tell you that one. What you need to do is pound a nail into a piece of wood, where the nail sticks out a few inches on the other side. Now jab your cob down onto that nail. This will help stabilize the corn. Now start creaming, by twisting the device back and forth. And try not to let the tears blur your vision as you see half of the kernel still stuck on the cob.

3 Tbs butter
3 Tbs flour
3 1/2 cups room temp whole milk
3 cups corn
salt and ground white pepper to taste

Melt butter in a large pan, stir in flour. Add the milk slowly, stirring with whisk until completely blended, bring to a gentle roll and thicken. Add corn, simmer 3 minutes. salt and white pepper to taste.

Tomorrow? More corn.

When it rains around here, it doesn't sprinkle.

All the chicks I ordered from McMurray died. So. . . I ordered through Ridgeway. I got 25 straight run Leghorns. They are a few weeks old, and looks like only 4 of them are roosters. The Bantams I ordered from McMurray are doing just fine.

Not much else to tell you about this weekend. My mother and stepfather came out. My stepfather did some welding, while my mother and I hung out. She did some crocheting and I shucked corn, lots of corn. We talked about the cows and grilled dinner outside. It was a pleasant day for being 103F outside.

I have a lot of corn to process today. Guess what the topic will be tomorrow.

Bikes, corn and home

Linda, the keeper of Raven's Roads is having a show and tell. What a biker! She walks around with a sign that says "SHOW ME YOUR. . . Bike!" Ha! She's not that kind of biker, so get that one out of your head. Got a motorcycle you want to show and tell? I brought mine in today.

On the homesteading front, my corn is burnt up. I watered and cared for it, yet it still didn't want to make it. This is the first time I have messed up on corn, and I don't know what I did wrong. There is a place a few miles from here that sells sweet corn, I will have to head there and by corn to can for the winter.

I fell through the floor of the laundry room on Saturday. I am tired of living this way. And am angry that credit scores are our only source of credit worthiness. I guess it is time I told you the story, I am sure some of you older readers are wondering why we haven't built our home yet.

We pay a company through our mortgage lender to watch our credit, they are to tell us when something negative has been placed on it. They didn't. We assumed everything was fine, and tried to push through our loan for the new house. Our credit score was too low and we were denied. What!?! So I looked it up. One bank marked us as a bad debt because we paid off a loan before it matured. So I fought it. It was only removed from one of the credit companies, not the others. But this didn't matter because we don't have credit cards and have paid off all our loans before maturity. This keeps are credit rating low. We stupidly thought that if we had no debt, that it would look good to lenders, everything was paid off in a timely manner. Nope, no go. So unless someone reading has $100,000US to loan me, it will be awhile until we can build our credit rating up to get a bank loan. Now we have to fix what is wrong with this house and hope for the best, like a plane landing on it for the insurance.

Applesauce

Over the next few days, or more than likely, weeks, I will be writing a lot on apples. My life wil be dominated with them. It's all part of a bountiful harvest, yet still, you will become as sick of apples as I am by the end of it. If you have any questions for me, now would be the best time to ask them. I will answer the questions in my posts. It might make both of our lives a little less repetitive.

On to the apples.

Lisa suggested that I make pre-spiced pie filling

Merry has an apple dessert handed down through the generations she is allowing me to use

Carl informed me that hard cider is the way to go

anymore suggestions?

6 lbs down! I made cinnamon apple sauce yesterday. Unfortunately, I do not have anything to weigh out the apples I am using. So when a recipe calls for a certain weight rather than measuring in cups, I am at a loss. Doing a little digging, I was able to find out that 2 cups of sliced apples equals 1 lb of whole apple. It took a lot of different key words, and it was buried in page 30 of a google search, but I did find it.
The recipe calls for the use of Jonathan apples. I do not have as many of those then I do the others, and I prefer using them {Jonathan apples} in pies. I used the red Delicious, as I have 2 bushels of those, the applesauce turned out well using them.

6lbs apples {12 cups sliced}
2 cups water
1/2 cup sugar {more if you like it very sweet}
1 tbl bottled lemon juice


Mix the lemon and water together in a large pot. peel and core, slice and measure your apples, and immediately place them into the water/lemon, this will keep you apple slices from browning. Stir well every time you put more apple into the saucepan, coating all. Heat over a medium-high heat until your apples are soft, stir constantly. The timing will depend on how firm your apples are. Using a food processor, puree the apples and juice. If you don't have a food processor, keep the pot on a low simmer, and mash until desired consistency. Once you have done that, return the mix to the saucepan and heat back up to a boil over medium. Stir in the sugar, {if you want cinnamon add 3/4 tsp after the sugar}. mix well. This can be canned, makes 4-5 pints, use a hot water bath {20 minutes}

Apple trivia to amaze {annoy} your friends with ; Apples originated in the Middle East more than 4000 years ago.

I also canned tomato pureeAnd a quart of corn
Want to see something very scary? Actually it's more like lack of talent. Yesterday while sitting on the porch watching the kids play in the yard, I felt Children of the Corn'ish and made a very bad cornhusk doll.
I have watched one too many horror movies. I remember doing this as a kid, though they were prettier in my memories. I saved all the husks knowing that I wanted to do something with them. Maybe use them as packing material as many households use newspaper. Now I think I will have to find some instructions on how to do different decorations with them. Might be a fun thing for the kids. Anyone have any ideas?

I even Dreamed about Corn.

Corn, it's mornings like these that I could live out my remaining days and be happy to never lay my eyes on an ear of corn again. My hands are very sore this morning after almost a full day of harvesting, shucking and de-kernelizing corn. I pulled in a full bushel, and still have a least one more bushel out in the garden.

I have also recently learned that corn nuts equals parched corn. { I tried to find a link on how to make parched corn, but none of them are the same as what one of my books says, I will write it up later} I had no idea what they were call besides corn nuts. Now that I have discovered this little tidbit of information, I feel more confident in moving forward with this project. {The hominy will have to wait as I am a little uncomfortable about working with lye, maybe during the winter I will try my hand at lye soaps, just to have the experience with it}
My sweet hickory corn is soaking in water for 18 hours. Once that is completed, they will be dried in a low heat oven until slightly brown, tossed with a little oil and salt. If this first batch works out, I will play with the flavorings.

We have a serious problem with corn earworms. Covering the tips of the forming corn with mineral oil or cutting the exposed silk is suppose to help. It did not help that much. Maybe with a little more research I can find another way to deal with them. As it is now, I could not save any whole cobs.

The chicks spent their first full night out in the nursery. They were very happy to see me this morning. Though the geese and the turkey seem to bother them. The geese are very protective when it comes to any chicks in the nursery. Which is fine, as they keep predators away.

Speaking of turkeys, ours has been making me uneasy lately. I know he is in desperate need of a female as he is now coming into his own. Every time he sees me, he goes about displaying his feathers and strutting around. Of course I am very flattered, but if he decides he is just going to attempt to make a move on me, I could end up hurt. He is very large, and very strong. He jumped off the feed storage bin and hit me with a wing one day. Took me a moment to catch my breath. But last night as I was feeding the chicks, he sat in the corner just staring at me, it was slightly unnerving

And They Said It Couldn't Be Done

Thunder is a pleasant sound to wake to, if you live in Kansas, in August, during a drought. This morning I hear the thunder, something that over the long dry days you forget what it sounds like. {Anyone else thinking, I ride through the desert on a horse with no name...} Looking out my window I see the telltale signs of hail. That is not a good sign. One problem is my garden, plants tend not to fair well when being pounded on with ice cubes. Another problem is that more often than not, hail here means a tornado. But wait! It's August, we are out of tornado season. I am hopeful that this menacing, looming doom is just a freak, and that we have not entered swing season prematurely.

Swing season? Yes, swing season. It's the time of year where mother nature can't make up her mind. She still enjoys the 90f degree {32c} temperatures one day, but the next her hot flash has turned into chills and you must suffer the 40f degree {4c} temperatures with her. This is when she is temperamental and we get tornadoes. Every year between winter and spring, summer and fall. Officially, Tornado season in Kansas is only in the spring, but we know and remember some nasty ones in November. I'd better bring Toto in the house.

I had a very busy weekend. As I told alrescate, canning season will be over soon, and we will get back to the more mundane things. With the new dehydrator at hand, I dried out some spinach and made Florentine. You'll be glad to hear that I waited for the noodles to dry, via food dehydrator {these things where invented for impatient people like myself}

I ignored the recipes I was given and went with what I thought a good Florentine recipe should be. It worked, and I am happy I didn't blow it.

But what would this blog be without me screwing up. I brought in one ear of Hickory Corn. I felt the overwhelming desire to make corn nuts. Please tell me, that some one that reads this has a decent corn nut recipe they are willing to share with me! I couldn't find a recipe in the homesteading books, so I went the route of the internet. There seems to be all of 2 recipes floating around out there. I copied them and followed the directions. The "corn nuts" tasted like burnt, hollow popcorn shells. Good choice.

I needed fruit, apparently lots of fruit. I wanted berries, but that was not in the cards this weekend. The family piled into the car and we headed over to the "local pick your own" farm. Only to discover that they were no longer a "pick your own". Bummer. People had been destroying the trees. So the fruits were already picked and the berries and been turned into jams and butters. But I wanted to do that myself. I bought some pumpkin butter, as I have never had it before, and some honey. A half peck of apricots, a half peck of pears and 4 plums. The plums were promptly eaten.

Home again home again, where my husband ran outside to play with his new weed eater. I gathered eggs and tomatoes. Once inside, I smelled watermelon wine coolers. Something I don't drink. Panicky, I remembered the watermelon that my two youngest boys had poked holes in and I had set aside to deal with later. I found it where I had stashed it, fermenting. The only thing it was good for now, was leather.

Nothing in the books about watermelon leather. But it did talk about how to thicken up the very thin pureed fruits. Watermelon would fall into that category. I cut, sliced, removed seeds and slowly boiled until thought it was a good thickness {but what do I know?} Poured it on the leather sheet and placed it into the dehydrator. While waiting I remembered to search online. {thus I did} No recipes on making it, but I did find a forum that was talking about it. "No, you can not make watermelon leather. You would have to have a lot of melon because of the little amounts of pulp it contains." or..."mix it with some applesauce, that might work".

HA! I give you pure watermelon leather!


After 6 hours, it was firmed up enough to pick at.{ that's not mice nibbles or little fingers, that would be me taking the small chunk}

Did I by chance say pure? Pure concentrated watermelon. I felt the need to don a purple velvet jump suit and solicit others "psst, you want some? It's pure stuff man, can you dig?"

This stuff hurts your teeth. It's not the pleasant "pink" taste that you get from watermelon candies. oh no!

I like watermelon, but this...this was just too much.




I rolled it up anyway, just so I can say I did it. It's a little sticky, but I had rubbed some oil on the sheet before pouring the puree on it, that helped.

Now what to do about the taste. I don't want to add sugar, as it is sweet enough, plus I read that leathers that have sugar in them will crumble in storage. Maybe applesauce?

I do have 4 quarts of the puree waiting for me, and as it only took 1 cup to make the one leather, I have enough to play with, for a while.

A meatless change of subject? blogathon entry #20

I bought some corn. Any good corn chowder or soup recipes. (Especially meatless varieties?)

~ hungry and greedy reader

Sweetcorn/Potato Chowder

This will serve 4

1 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 medium potaot, chopped
2 stalks celery, sliced
1 small green pepper, seede, halved and sliced
2 tsb sunflower oil
2 tsp butter
2 1/2 cups stock
salt and ground black pepper
1 1/4 cups milk
7oz lima beans
11 oz of corn
pinch of dried sage


put all the veggies, except corn and beans, in a large sauce pan with butter and oil

heat until sizzeling, turn heat down to low. Cover for 10 minutes shake pan once in a while

pour in stock, season to taste and turn heat back up, bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes

add milk, beans corn and sage. Simmer 5 minutes. season to taste, serve

7 points for changing the subject, Greedyreader!