TBT: SHUCKS

TBT: Every August for at least the last 15 years you will find us on the front porch doing this particular activity...  If our goats could have seen over the stacks of wood they would have become super excited because we were sitting there shucking corn and they would soon be receiving those shucks and eventual bare cobs. They really have Natureman to thank because he's responsible for how that corn came to be growing across from their pasture.

What's different about this year as I have alluded to before is we couldn't go buy seed. Luckily, we had leftover seed but we had no clue as to how old the corn seed was. So Natureman planted it thicker than usual knowing some seed probably wouldn't germinate. And sure enough there were gaps but as he thinned, he transplanted those crowded seedlings to fill the gaps giving us three full~ 25 ft long rows of corn. 

It was a bumper crop.

As the water heated up on the stovetop, the goats got to snack on the 2 garbage cans full of husks. They were thrilled. 

It would be a couple hours later before they would get to enjoy the de-kerneled cobs.  

Pinterest educated I used the bundt pan to hold the ears in place as I sliced off the kernels without my knuckle skin. The kernels stay mostly inside the pan which makes it much easier for scooping them up to fill the freezer baggies. 

Here's Natureman gleaming as he blanches the beautiful ears of corn from his arduous garden labor of prepping the soil, rototilling (more than a couple of times I may add) planting, transplanting, mulching and weeding to see the final product come to fruition. A wish he had last winter to be able to have a garden this year has come true.

After cutting off the kernels, each batch goes into quart ziplock freezer baggies, 27 in total. We will have plenty to get us through until next summer.

It's a lot of work but we know from where and whom cometh our food. In the End of the Rainbow Valley his name is Natureman... Here's to many more gardening seasons.