Life is Sweet

On Mother's Day, some bad weather blew through our area, bringing strong winds and hail.  It did a lot of destruction.  Not at our place, but neighbors across town.  I work for an insurance company and have been driving around counting hail dents on vehicles.  I have well over 100 hail claims to write estimates for.  I'll be busy for a while!  I feel sorry for the poor people I talk to that are heartbroken over their vehicles.  They can be repaired, though.

Life is still good, though, you know?  At the end of the day, things quieten down.  The sky gets real pretty.  Things are green and lush with all the rainfall.  We can take time to appreciate all the good things.  I walked out to the garden with a couple of 5 gallon buckets.  It was time to harvest the sweet corn.  The wind had laid some of it down on the tomatoes, but it was all good. 

I planted only two rows this year.  We still have ears of sweet corn from last year's crop in the freezer.  Last year we had a pollination problem.  Lots of blanks on the ears of corn.  This year the pollination problem was gone.  I planted the corn closer together this year.  That gives a better chance of fertilization.  All the ears were full and plump.

I have a little tradition that I started years ago.  When I pick the first corn of the year, I shuck it and eat the first ear raw, right there in the corn row.  Sweet.  Delicious.  You don't even need to cook it.

Of course I'm showing you a pretty ear.  I've got to be honest.  All the ears aren't pretty.  This is not an ear of corn that you want to eat raw standing in the sweet corn patch.

Doggone Worms!

I shucked all the corn and threw all the husks, silk and ends of the cobs over the garden fence.  The cows and goats feasted.  Nothing gets wasted around here.  The corn was ready for processing.  Tricia blanched it all.

Then, in a big bowl so as not to make a big mess, we cut the corn off the cob, scraping the cob good to get all the sweet 'milk' that we could.

Fresh sweet corn is such a treat!

We bagged it up in quart sized freezer bags.  They'll be put in the freezer and will be used to make corn maque choux, shrimp and corn chowder and other favorite dishes.

Simple pleasures like fresh sweet corn reminds you that despite all the problems in the world, life is still sweet!