Saturday, September 6, 2014

A Beautiful Sunny Day!

What a treat!  We had a perfect weather day today.  Both Papa Pea and I were able to putter around outside getting lots of good things done.

I did take a bit of a rest (plunked on my posterior) for a couple of hours prepping chives for the freezer.

If you've read my blog for a while, you know I'm a big fan of freezing chives to use in my cooking all through the winter months.  I usually do this task first thing in the spring when my chives first grow tall enough to harvest.  Hrumpf, didn't get it done first thing this spring.  (Probably because the chives were still under a couple feet of snow!)

Anywho, I knew that I couldn't put this little task off much longer or Jack Frost would take care of it for me, and I would spend the winter . . . chiveless.

But my procrastination may have caused me to make a good discovery.  The chives I harvested today were much more pungent than those harvested early on in the season.  Matter of fact, there were a couple of times during the processing when my eyes started watering just as they do sometimes when slicing onions.  But this is a good thing!  That means that not only will my chives add color to selected dishes this winter, but they will also add more flavor.  Who knew the potency of chives is different at different times during the season?  (Not moi obviously.)


Call me Clumsy Carp (anybody remember that character from the old comic strip B.C.?) as I somehow managed to dump two containers of the chives during the processing.  After that, I put the lids on the containers immediately after filling them.

I've been checking our Painted Mountain Corn to see when the ears would be big enough, but not totally matured, to eat as sweet corn.


Today these were the only two ears I could find in the whole darn corn patch that were big enough to harvest.


I've posted about this corn we grow previously.  When mature it looks much like Indian Corn (above picture from two years ago) and can be ground for a super-nutritious flour or fed to livestock.  When the ears are immature, as were the two I picked today, they can be eaten as sweet corn.

So how did these two sample ears taste?  Very, very good!  Of course, not as sweet as the hybrid corn bred and grown as the sweet corn many of us are used to, but I'm assuming the taste of ours today was much like the sweet corn our grandparents grew in their gardens.


I have to admit it does look particularly strange to see a "black" cob after one is done eating!

Here's hoping for another sunny day tomorrow.  Along with still more to harvest, I'm into tearing out old vines and plants.  Deconstructing the garden is just as much work as planting it is . . . but not nearly as satisfying!

16 comments:

Sparkless said...

I find ripping out old plants and clearing out the garden to be more satisfying because I can see my progress so quickly. Where if you are planting it takes weeks before your plants sprout and more weeks before you can actually reap your harvest. With cleaning out your gardens there is not more work after it's done until spring, at least where I live there isn't.

Sue said...

I am so glad you had this post---I've COMPLETELY forgotten to do chives. Hooray for you!! I will put that on my "to-do" list for today. You know--that list we all have that for some odd reason keeps growing and growing.

The corn is very beautiful. I've always wanted to try a batch of that, but so enjoy the hybrid corn we grow that ...well, I probably won't. But thankfully I get to admire yours--gorgeous gorgeous stuff that it is.
So glad to hear you've had some sunshiney weather. Hope it continues. Have a wonderful week

Endah Murniyati said...

Your corns look so interesting Mama, so cute... I hope one day I can grow it on my garden

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

I've started to rip stuff out too. The corn looks great. I'm looking forward to planting sweet corn next season. I can't wait to see how our popcorn turned out too.

Unknown said...

I miss the old fashioned yellow corn, not the sweet stuff....

Mama Pea said...

Sparkless - Yes, another way of looking at it!

Mama Pea said...

Sue - Thank you! Today was another great day. Here it is just after 5 p.m. and I'm yearning for a shower and reading on the couch before going to bed. Oh yeah, and will someone please make a nice little dinner for me?? Got a lot done in the garden these past two days and it feels great!

Mama Pea said...

Thank you, Endah. Can you grow corn in your locale?

Mama Pea said...

Kristina - I, too, have been waiting to see how your popcorn does. And how much one has to grow to get a good winter's supply!

Mama Pea said...

Nancy po - I know the hybrid stuff today is very sweet, but I so remember the ears of corn my grandpa used to grow in his garden back in the 1950s . . . and my memories of it are that it tasted wonderful!

Sandy Livesay said...

Mama Pea,

I've stopped freezing chives because my freezer smelled so much like them not matter how I packed the pieces. I think I'm probably better off dehydrating them.

Great looking corn!

Mama Pea said...

Sandy - I think you must have the most potent chives of all! Have you tried putting the frozen chives in glass jars? I put mine in plastic containers (probably not the best choice) and then those containers in a freezer bag and have never noticed the smell permeating into the freezer proper. Do you process them "whole" or pre-chopped for your dehydrating?

Susan said...

Ha! I love how you classify sitting and snipping chives as 'down time'. We may be very closely related... Thanks to your suggestion, I have done that now and can enjoy my chives in February. That corn is really cool! I am so excited about my popcorn, that I may just branch out, so to say...

Mama Pea said...

Susan - Popcorn? That's right, you planted popcorn this year. Oh, so eager to hear how it turned out. Wonder if I'd have the same (non)success with popcorn as I do with sweet corn??

Carolyn said...

That corn is beautiful. One day (before I'm dead, hopefully) I'd like to plant corn, and if I do, I'm going to be begging you for some seed.

BTW, I miss your Pot On Head and Ice Skating pics. I think you should do a "Summer" themed one like the winter one, but in the garden, just after you've keeled over from exhaustion.

Mama Pea said...

Carolyn - Why don't you plant on putting in some corn next year? I'll supply you with as much seed as you need.

Hee-hee, I had a summer themed profile pic of me flat out in the garden that I never got around to posting. Next year!