The Daily Grind

Tricia really likes to go to Whole Foods.  This store has many of the organic, natural, and non-GMO things she's looking for.  The nearest Whole Foods is in Baton Rouge and things in that store are pretty pricey! We now have a great alternative to that store which allows you to do all the shopping in your PJ's.  Tricia found Azure Standard, a co-op that has a lot of the items that Whole Foods carries and they're priced better for the most part.  You browse the website catalog and place your order online and once a month your order is delivered to your town, or nearby town, for you to pick up.  We love it.  Check it out at this website: http://www.azurestandard.com/

Tricia picked up the order this past week and one of the items she purchased was a 25 pound bag of organic, non-GMO field corn.  She has had the itch to make corn tortillas and masa to make homemade tamales.  The first step for making masa is soaking the corn in lime.  We'll show that at a later date when we try it.  The first step to make cornmeal and grits is grinding the corn and we'll do that now.  We set up our little grinder and opened the sack of corn.  Time to get to work.

A sack of corn, a grinder, and an able-bodied boy = fresh ground cornmeal

We poured the corn into the hopper and pushed it down with a stick.

Ready to grind

You can adjust the tensioner on the grinder to make fine cornmeal or coarse ground cornmeal for grits. Then you just get busy.  It doesn't take long and it is sort of a neat thing to do.  You can put some music on or sit and visit while you grind.

Grinding corn

In no time at all you've got one cup of cornmeal.  In fact, things went so fast that Tricia and Benjamin had 2 pounds of cornmeal all ground by the time I got home from work.

Future cornbread, or corn tortillas, or masa for tamales...

So now I can't wait to enjoy the fruits of Tricia and Benjamin's labors by eating some delicious cornbread. As soon as we make tortillas or tamales, I'll post pictures and the recipe.

A gardener is always looking forward to the next season.  I'm aiming for a better corn crop next year so that I can dry and grind our own corn in 2014.  We'll see how that goes...