Corn Shuckin'

Well, last Thursday after work, we came home packed up and went to Christian's folks in Tulsa. When we got there we went to eat with them and got to hang out with his Mamaw on Friday. It's always good to put grandma-time in.

Sunday we went home to 'put up' a bushel of Merit corn we'd gotten at this farmer's market in Bixby. Christian's Grandpa farmed corn up until his Alzheimer's got so bad he would forget what he planted where and would dig up cantaloupes, watermelons, and tear down bean plants and just try to start over in the middle of the summer. It was the saddest thing I've ever seen. Farming was like second nature to him and he couldn't remember what was where. He grew the best, sweetest corn you've ever put in your mouth and every year Christian's entire family would go there and put the corn up on a hot July day.

We shuck it, cut the ends off, silk it, give each ear a good rinsing in a bucket of water to get the worms and yuck off, and then we put it up. This entails taking each cob and cutting the precious sweet corn right off the cob, then going back with the back of your knife and scraping all the rest of the corn and sweet natural juices off, we measure it out by cups into 1 quart freezer bags that lasts us for most of the year. Now that I've had "Cecil corn" I just can't go back.

I love the Fourth. I love summer foods - tomatoes, homemade strawberry jam, corn, cantaloupes, cherries, snap peas... in fact, I'm going home and going to make BLT's tonight. Yum.