My neighbour Jeff runs a small vegetable farm and corner stall on Monte Paiement. This year he planted 5X the normal amount of corn he usually grows. The spring corn came up late and was quite samll. No problem as he had planted lots of summer corn that came up quite nicely. However I watched the spring corn plants dry up with cobs of corn still on them. "Nope, those will get plowed under, not harvested. Why, you want them? " Thoughts of the chickens and turkeys happily munching down on corn filled my mind so I said sure. Jeff pointed a section of corn and said, "Pick whatever you want there". Luckily the fields were dry and I was able to drive the AWD car into the field. I started down between two rows filling up feed bags and empty dog food bags (we don't throw anything away). One row one bag, or two rows at a time meant stopping midway to start another bag. The first day I got 6 rows picked. A couple of days later I got another 4 rows picked. There is lots left to go.
Now you can't just pick corn and leave it or it will go mouldy. You have to husk it and dry it in the sun, just like they did it in the old days. For the first few days I left them in the plastic bags, not a good idea. Then I dumped the bags on top of the plywood roof on the dog kennel - brilliant! That worked pretty well until I asked one evening, "When is it supposed to rain, tonight or tomorrow?" "Tonight I think" said sweetie so out I went to gather up the exposed corn. I just got the ladder up when the heavens opened up and most of the corn got wet as I feverishly dumped armload of it into any container I could find. The next day I spread the corn out on the ground and started husking them. This was quite meditative and sweetie and I would sit around, chatting about the day while husking corn. Soon enough it was all done still sitting on plywood on the grass. Each night I could cover it up to keep the dew off and each morning sweetie would pull the plastic sheets off.
My folks were up on the weekend and I mentioned that the grass was probably turning white under the plywood so Pops suggested I get some old fencing, drape it across the old rowboat and put the corn there as the air could get underneath and the corn would dry quicker. Brilliant! The corn all fit nicely and is drying well. The turkeys and hens will have some nice corn to go with their feed over the winter.
Now you can't just pick corn and leave it or it will go mouldy. You have to husk it and dry it in the sun, just like they did it in the old days. For the first few days I left them in the plastic bags, not a good idea. Then I dumped the bags on top of the plywood roof on the dog kennel - brilliant! That worked pretty well until I asked one evening, "When is it supposed to rain, tonight or tomorrow?" "Tonight I think" said sweetie so out I went to gather up the exposed corn. I just got the ladder up when the heavens opened up and most of the corn got wet as I feverishly dumped armload of it into any container I could find. The next day I spread the corn out on the ground and started husking them. This was quite meditative and sweetie and I would sit around, chatting about the day while husking corn. Soon enough it was all done still sitting on plywood on the grass. Each night I could cover it up to keep the dew off and each morning sweetie would pull the plastic sheets off.
My folks were up on the weekend and I mentioned that the grass was probably turning white under the plywood so Pops suggested I get some old fencing, drape it across the old rowboat and put the corn there as the air could get underneath and the corn would dry quicker. Brilliant! The corn all fit nicely and is drying well. The turkeys and hens will have some nice corn to go with their feed over the winter.
Dog food bags full of corn
Drying in the Sun
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