Just Shuckin’ the corn in Oregon with a WARNING for your Dog!

I went out the other morning into the garden and 2 dozen quail take off out of my corm patch. No this isn’t a large patch, only 7 rows of 25 feet in length so I know something must be up! Yep, as I walk through my stalks, many with two or three ears set on them I can see the damage. The Quail rip back the husks and the stand on the exposed ear pecking away until we’re left with nothing but a bare pecker-head. The result?

See for yourself!

25 Ears eaten? That’s a bit of MY food! Time to either eat Quail or get some corn out of the field like PRONTO!!

So I start picking the ears that are ready, leaving the immature ones for another week and hopefully not for Mr. Quail! Over 100 ears in that little space of 7 x 25 ft. rows! All juicy and ready to eat! So I take them out on the back patio and watch the ducks on th epond while I shuck corn! Feels like Montana in the 40’s and 50’s all over again when Mom supervised Gail, Chris, Anne and Me, making sure we shucked our fair share before we could go off and play! (Somehow us bigger kids always had to do more than the little ones. Hmm!)

Here’s my Shuckin’ Site!:

Here’s a closer look at what I got when it was all done.

Take a good look at what we have here! A Genetic mixture fit for a class on Mendel’s inheritance rules.

A. My one row of Indian Corn – red/yellow/purple and white. B. My Mixed Indian Corn and Yellow sweet corn from my saved seed from last year’s corn-mixed because of pollination by wind. and C. Yellow sweet corn from my seed last year which didn’t get pollinated with Indian Corn pollen.

Cool!

Now to throw all that corn into boiling water and cook it up for 2-3 minutes, let cool and slice off all the Kernals to go into freezer bags. Here’s some of the final take:

Also a bunch of ears in the refrigerator to eat for the next week until I pick again! Note the Indian Corn is roasted with seasoning when we take it our of the freezer and then it’s like munchies for around the house snacks!

Plus! – 12 Nice Indian Corn Ears for Thanksgiving Decoration and planting next year!! Think I’ll put in about 10 rows of Indian Corn next year and sell the dried ears at the harvest festival here in Hood River next fall!

ONE BIG FINAL WARNING!!!

DON”T GIVE YOUR DOG THESE!!!

CORN COBS ARE LIKE INTESTINE CORKS!! THE DOG WOLF’S THE CHUNKS OF COB

THE CHUNKS PLUG UP THE INTESTINE

YOU WILL HAVE BIG-TIME VET BILLS TO SAVE THE DOG!

PUT THE COBS IN THE GARBAGE, THE COMPOST, OR FEED THEM TO THE CHICKENS!