Blog du Wren

A Corny Experiment

It is corn season here in the Northwest. There are trailers parked on the side of the road at freeway on-ramps and at various locations across the Skagit flats advertising 6 ears for $1. Here soon, it will undoubtedly drop to 10/$1 when the peak of the season hits and people are starting to get tired of seeing kernels everywhere they look*.

I love corn, esp. when it is so fresh and sweet like we have here. Each year, I tell myself that a) I will try to grow some and 2) I will try to put some away (either by drying or freezing). Every year at my local foods party, I get mad at myself for not having put some up the previous year so as to have local corn meal to try out with new recipes. This year, I'm happy to say, I can check both things off my list.

My attempts at growing corn are proving alright. Nothing staggering, but my will provide a few ears. To get enough for drying, I had to turn to Joe's Garden in Bellingham. At the outrageous price of 3/$1.25, I bought 12* and set to drying. Unfortunately corn season and sun season in the northwest don't conveniently coincide, so I'm having to resort to the oven for drying. We'll see how it goes. If everything goes right, I'll take my knowledge from the garden corn to produce a decent little harvest next year AND have this year's dried corn to turn into corn bread or corn tortillas for next years local foods party.

Friday September 19 2008

File under: food

Toggle Comments (5)

comment?

on Fri 19th Sep, 2008 09:52 pm PDT Jeff said:
Looks delicious. Perhaps this is how I should make use of the 1/8 acre of my lot that I've let nature take over again.
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on Sat 20th Sep, 2008 05:41 am PDT Sean said:
Anyone know the history of the expression "Corny?"
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on Sat 20th Sep, 2008 07:13 pm PDT whuppinstick said:
wren, why did you pay a lot of money for your corn? was it to assure the 'localness' of it so it fits with the party?
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on Mon 22nd Sep, 2008 12:26 am PDT Horge said:
Can you give me your corn tortillas recipe? Here I've been making flour tortillas for 4 years, but always thought I needed some "masa harina" to make the cornies. Any successful way to make 'em without a lot of special ingredients unfindable in eastern Europe? We've got limes but wouldn't know where to find "lime"...
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on Fri 26th Sep, 2008 01:24 pm PDT Wren said:

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