Record corn prices mean more expensive meat, dairy products

"Hachiroku" <Trueno.DeleteThis@e86.GTS> wrote in message
news:pan.2008.06.26.06.46.31.895913@e86.GTS...
> On Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:10:06 -0400, C. E. White wrote:
>
>>> Another casualty is quality corn. They're harvesting too early, and the
>>> corn is terrible.
>>
>> I assume you are talking about sweet corn, not field corn. All my corn is
>> field corn (hard yellow #2 corn)
>
>
> Is that the deep yellow stuff with the big kernels? "Cow Corn"?
> I LOVE that stuff! We used to raid the local large farmer's fields, get a
> couple dozen, go down to the river, soak them for 5 minutes and throw them
> in the fire. MOOOOOOOOOO!

Field corn, if picked at the right time, is really good. For many years my
father would plant a couple of acres of white field corn (this corn is often
used to make white corn meal). Along around late June / Early July we would
start checking the corn. We were looking for filled out but not hard
kernels. When my Grandfather and/or Father decided the time was right we
would gather the family and neighbors and start pulling corn. It was almost
an industrial operation. We would go out into the field and pull bushels of
corn, take it back to the house, shuck it, silk it (remove the silk from
between the grains), chop the ends off the ears, dump the ears in boiling
water, cut the corn off the cob, and then freeze the corn. We would put up
enough corn to last three or four families for a year. You could do exactly
the same thing with yellow field corn. With "field corn" it is all about the
timing if you want to eat it. Pick it too soon and the kernels are not
filled out and there isn't much sugar in the kernels. Wait too long and the
corn becomes hard and the sugar is converted to starch. "Sweet corn" is just
corn that has been bred to create more sugar and to stay "sweet" longer. If
you leave it in the field long enough it will get hard as well. Thee days I
just plant a small patch of sweet corn for my Mother. It tends to get ready
in early July, but the picking time is not critical. She'll pull a few ears
over a period of a few days to a couple of weeks and get all she needs for
the year. Worms aren't too bad with early corn (the population builds up
later in the year). The ears tend to be smaller, but the corn is usually
very sweet. Unfortunately for the last couple of years, we have had dry corn
growing seasons, which limits the quality.

Ed