We’ve been eating fresh corn straight from the garden about every day and it is so good! Matt and I are still tickled to death to be growing corn in Pap’s big garden again.
The huge tree that fell in one corner of the garden earlier this summer took out all the stalks it landed on. The wind that toppled the tree laid the rest of the corn down like a giant comb had been run through it after a bath.
There wasn’t nothing that could be done about the corn under the tree, but the sun raised the rest of the patch up and it is all producing well.
This year we did two plantings of silver queen corn a few weeks apart. It has really worked out nice. We’re still eating on the first corn and have the second to look forward too.
We have always preserved our corn by freezing it, but yesterday we canned corn. I can’t wait to open a jar and see if we like it enough to do it again.
Pap and Granny grew silver queen too. It’s a white sweet corn that we all love. Pap would usually plant a row or two of field corn so they could make hominy. I hope we can do that next year.
“It was easy for settlers to understand why the Indians had venerated this grain [corn], but there seemed to be no end to the blessings it brought.
First of all, it provided them with a variety of food: cornbread, corn pone, johnny cake, Indian pudding, roasting ears, mush, popcorn, hominy, succotash, parched corn, dried corn, fresh corncakes, scrapple, stuffing, corn pudding, corn relish, corn soup, and other dishes. ..Corn fed the pigs and chickens, the horse and cow. Cornbread rewarded the faithful dog.
Pioneer homes used cornhusk mattresses, which were soft and comfortable…Settlers used corncobs as kindling and fuel. They used corncob pipes, corncob stoppers in jugs, and corncob fertilizer. The children made cornhusk and corncob dolls, played with hair, beards, and mustaches fashioned of corn silk. Women made corncob syrup, a delicacy little known but still relished in the Kentucky mountains.”
—Esther Kellner, Moonshine: Its History and Folklore (Excerpt from Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread & Scuppernong Wine by Joseph E. Dabney
Last night’s video: July in Appalachia.
Tipper
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I forgot to mention that we take the silks and make tincture. It’s really good for kidney stones, and bladder issues. We were at the end of the road for several urinary issues and an Amish elder shared the way. We now make it yearly. Y’all can look into it. It’s safe and really works good. A true gift from our Heavenly Father
Tipper, I can and freeze corn. My husband’s aunt shared with us to add a packet of Granny’s Canning Acid when canning our corn and it would stay fresh looking and tasting. It surely does and we’ve been using it for years. If you can’t find it there I’d be happy to send y’all some. We buy it from our Amish friends. So glad y’all are in enjoying corn from Pap’s garden. That’s so very special!
So many blessings!!!
Fresh corn on the cob is truly one of the most delicious foods on the table. I remember eating it, as a young girl” and having to use a “large” napkin or hand towel to wipe the juice and butter running down my arms. LOL! My other favorites in no particular order is fresh juicy tomatoes, green beans, okra, potatoes, greens, dried beans of almost any kind and fresh baked bread. Oh yeah, I know bread isn’t a veggie. LOL! Have a blessed, beautiful and fulfilling weekend everyone and love to all. Thanks Miss Tipper for all your great vlogs and this wonderful forum to talk about God’s wonderful bounty to all His children. J
I, too, love corn. Alas, its high sugar content makes it impossible for me because of its effects on blood sugar.
We love corn too. On the cob, off the cob, roasted, pickled or cornbread. It doesn’t matter. We love it. Tipper, I received my mug yesterday and it is beautiful. Had my first coffee this morning and I know I will enjoy the mug for a long time. Thank you for the fast shipping and packing it with such care.
Your post takes me back to my early teens when my brother and I worked on a farm six days a week, eight hours each day. We got to plant, weed, and harvest beans, tomatoes, peppers potatoes, and corn. The years we worked on that farm taught me a lot, especially how to work. When the harvest takes coming in the owner of the farm always sent a large bag of whatever was coming in to take home.
Corn was tough to pick. The rows were long and the stacks were tall. And there is nothing like being in those rows picking corn and having some of the silk hassles go down your back. But that is where I first learned how much I loved corn. I even ate it raw one time along with my brother and it didn’t bother me but my brother had a stomach ache for quite a while.
While living in Hawaii I could eat corn almost year round due to the weather and I did eat it almost all year round.
Thank you for another trip down memory lane. My wife and I would like to meet you when you will be at the folk school. She would like to have you sign your cookbook. Again thank you and bless you and the entire family.
My Mother made the best pickled corn as well as pickled beans. A few years ago I had some church friends in for a “West Virginia” dinner in the Fall. One of the dishes I served was pickled corn. Only a couple had ever heard of it, but really enjoyed it. The rest of the meal consisted of pinto beans, fried potatoes , pork chops, sliced onions and tomatoes, and of course cornbread (no sugar) baked in an iron skillet and sweet tea. For dessert we had peach cobbler. To make it more authentic, we ate by the light of a kerosene lamp that had belonged to my parents. It was a fun evening and good fellowship around my table. I’m trying to help Tipper preserve Appalachia here in Ohio because my roots are in West Virginia and I’m proud of them!
My grandparents grew Silver Queen in Haywood Co. And my mother in law called any other corn “horse corn!”
I love sweet corn and can’t wait until the farmers vegetable stands up here have some. I love cooking it on the grill. Good eatin!!
When my uncle was alive, he grew silver queen corn. It’s the best!
My favorite way to eat corn is pickled on the cob. I tried to make some last summer, but it didn’t turn out for some unknown reason. It tasted like lightly salted corn and was declared unsafe to consume by my brother, who is known as a critical connoisseur. Where I’m from, corn was used to make moonshine likker, the most profit an ear of corn could generate, according to what I’ve been told.
I prefer yellow sweet corn. I like yellow cornbread and yellow grits too. I don’t know nothing about no puddins and pones.
I tried Silver Queen this year thinking it might stand up better against the wind. It didn’t! It must be some good eatin though. Animals are riding the few stalks still standing over and gnawin at the ears as the silks first appear. They are pulling my maters too.
That’s enough whining from me!
It tickles me so much to think of you eating your very own homegrown corn! Yesterday I made zucchini soup with corn cob stock I made last year. Has just a bit of sweetness just like corn! However, my own little crop of corn was eaten by a bear … the night before I was set to pick. I am fortunate that an organic corn farmer is nearby and a bit further is an
Amish farmer so I had plenty of corn.
A faint memory is making hula skirts from husks and silks after shucking ears and ears of corn!
Blessings.
I’m glad your corn turned out so well, Tipper. Around my area we’re paying 50 cents an ear. It is so delicious!
I did see your cabbage moths flittin’ around your garden. Good thing you had covered you plants early on. The larvae will eat the cabbages from deep inside and leave practically nothing but lacey veins. I’ve had 5 years experience with them. As I mentioned a few days ago, I’m using ground cayenne pepper on the plants and the moths are avoiding the cabbage and the collards.
My parents always grew a big crop of sweet corn as far back as I can remember. When they were older, mama and dad would just eat two or three ears each, along with a slice or two of cucumber and tomato for their supper. They loved it so much. They always froze their corn—it was so delicious in the cold months of winter.
My mama reminded me that the sweet corn she and dad grew was ‘early sun glow’. It was a very sweet and tender corn. They bought it at Southern States Co-op each year.
I don’t know why, but I have always preferred the yellow corn…maybe because it’s what we had when I was young.
Read my comment, my mother liked yellow Merit corn, Daddy liked Silver Queen. He would usually give in and plant Merit. Personally for me white or yellow corn is similar to brown and white eggshell eggs, I can’t tell much difference between the eggs or corn after it is cooked. Anyone else remember back in the early 60’s when this smaller sweet “garden” corn begin showing up it calling it bantam corn?
I’m so happy you all had a blessed bounty of corn, even after the damage from the trees and wind. Nothing so tasty than fresh corn from the garden and even better when it’s from your own garden.
I had put a smiley face emoji on my comment but it didn’t post.
Don’t forget Corn Cobs in the Out House for toilet paper and they made a lot of whiskey out of corn.
David, read my comment about red and white corncobs being used in the outhouse. I have heard of looking at cornfields and farmers talking about the number of gallons instead of buschels it would make.
Glad yall are enjoying corn. I’ve never heard of corncob fertilizer or syrup. I’d like to know more on this. Would be a good thing for you to research and do a video on. Then I wouldn’t have to .
I thought of that too. My mom grew up with an outhouse.
I grew up with an outhouse! I have an indoor toilet now but I still like to pee outside after dark. It’s a man thing.
Nothing like Silver Queen corn right out of the patch!!!! My daddy always grew Hastings Prolific field corn. Good eating!!! We froze it and canned it in the soup mix.
Can’t imagine not having silver queen corn for supper every night when it’s in season! As Carolyn stated, it’s so versatile!!
Everyone have a great day!
My parents grew corn as well. There is nothing like fresh corn.
I’m so happy to hear the excitement in your posts and videos. Gardening is sure one way to stay connected to our family that has gone on.
Corn really is a versatile crop. I can definitely see why it was valued by the early settlers and native Americans alike. When I was little, corn was about the only vegetable I would eat. I did grow out of that. Especially when I discovered how tasty my mom’s green beans were. I still enjoy mixing some corn with green beans.
Like I have been writing all along in my comments, fresh home grown corn was in very short supply around my area this year because of the hot dry weather we have had since the beginning of June. It started just a few weeks before the corn started tasseling and putting on ears. There are several very large acreage corn fields in my area that have already dried up with the stalks with having a few nubby ears on them looking like they would in the fall of the year. As Tipper wrote, in the past field corn had an endless amount of uses, I have even head of the cobs being used in the “outhouse.” I have heard it joked and said there would be two buckets of red cobs and one of white, the white were only used to check to see if you needed to use more red cobs! We lived beside my maternal grandparents, I tried to be like my Granddaddy’s shadow and spend as much time with him as I could, one of the favorite things I did with him was to “help” him pull fodder, cut the stalks for “shocks” and pull pull the dried ears of corn for feed for the farm animals. I now have the broken blade butcher knife he used for doing much of this, it is worthless to everyone but me, it is invaluable and priceless to me. I would not sell it for any amount of money and keep it in a safe. For many years Silver Queen and Merit corn were the favorite variety of sweet corn for our gardens, Merit is no longer available, many think G90 is now the closest variety similar to it. I will add this for one other use of corn, making corncob pipes, we had a lady neighbor that dipped snuff and smoked a homemade corncob pipe that fascinated me when I was very young.
Hmmm in the KJV the word “corn” is used as a generic term for any grain. When the KJV was written in 1611 I wonder how much awareness there was in Europe of corn from the Americas. There had been about 60 years of contacts by then. Somebody, somewhere has provably written a history of corn. Anyway, what a change. We can’t imagine a world without corn now.
Wonder if that was my aunt Susie for whom I was named. (in Virginia)