Aspiring to Simplicity

Last weekend, while listening to some "dramatized" Bible on tape (I don't know what they were thinking when they picked Eve's voice, but...), we sat together as a family and shucked some popcorn. Shucked? Maybe we didn't shuck it. It was already shucked. I think. We popped the kernels off. No, we really didn't pop it either, because it's not popped yet. Hmm... Whatever we did, we removed each individual popcorn from it's cob. We saved some pretty ones for decor next year, and some for seed. This has been a wonderful aspect of our garden this year. I planted a quarter pound of seed, and it grew nicely. It grew TALL, and the girls loved hiding and playing within the rows. As did the escaped chickens. When it dried out, opening each ear was like opening a present; you never knew what colors or patterns were held inside. Little Monkey wasn't too keen on keeping the husks attached to the ears, though they look nicer that way, I think. The husks will further dry (to the point of crispy) in whatever way they are let set, so we even had some with husks pointing every which way. Most of our husks/stalks dried a beige color, but a few stayed a deep purple. We still have ears of the stuff about the house; the girls did *too* good a job at decorating. :) This was "Miniature Indian Popcorn," but it grew much larger than the last time I planted it; I think that was due to planting where we'd kept the pigs last winter. Even so, it's not quite as large as regular popcorn. You can tell when you put it in a hot-air popper and the kernels fly out! This is best popped in hot oil on the stovetop. We haven't popped any of this harvest yet, but our former tiny stuff popped up to about the size of the tip of my pinky finger! This harvest yielded about 7 pounds of popcorn, plus the decorations, seed, and random ears still roaming about. [Shucked, popped off, removed, whatever] and put in a jar with a ribbon makes a fun holiday gift, or they can be given as intact ears, with the dried husk attached.

I will be away from home and the computer for a day or so, so feel free to leave comments, but don't worry if they aren't published for awhile!