Dratted Garden Fairies

That's what someone on the Internet said was the reason that my corn is not sweet this year. The Garden Fairies caused it. Well, I guess it is as good a reason as any since no one else I could find had an explanation. Some said it was the type of seed but I know better. The corn should have been good. This is the first year that I haven't had sweet corn. Some of the corn is in heavily manured ground and some not but that isn't making a difference which puzzles me. I added a large amount of manure under my apple trees a couple years ago because the apples were really tart and the next year they were decidedly sweeter. Garden Fairy again, I'm wondering since the manure didn't seem to effect the corn. Here I have been blaming the farmers who I've bought corn from in the past for poor farming practices when their corn was tasteless. Now that theory is under revisement.

I had such high hopes since the ears this year were some of the prettiest I've ever grown. Most are seven inches in length and full. Last year, the ears weren't fully pollinated and the cobs were smaller. We ran the rows from north to south. This year we ran east to west like we did a couple years ago. Wind isn't a problem since it blows most of the time so I'm thinking the direction the corn is planted has a bearing on how the pollen is distributed. During most of my years of gardening I've gone to my mom's for a visit and bought corn since our garden was too small to grow it. So my corn raisng experience is limited. I do know that each kernel is attached to a silk and each silk must be pollinated.
Now even though most of the corn was nice, that didn't mean that I didn't have a few stubbies. And then there was this weird one that tried to grow two ears in one covering. The second ear is at the bottom and still covered.

But for my first picking, I did get a nice batch. No, those are not laundry baskets but they are decent sized tubs. They are headed for the upright freezer today to help with some organization problems. I'll tell you more about that later.

I've a trick to share with you. If you have sweet corn, in order to keep it sweet frozen, cut it off the cob and then blanch it. Don't blanch on the cob. You cut down on a whole lot of mess too.

I'll give you my Aunt's recipe for this technique and a delicious creamed corn recipe my mom got tomorrow but right now I'm headed to the store for seven-up. Yup, my husband has the flu now and I've the three grand kids.