By Mary Lowther
“You can’t buy corn like this anymore,” David mumbled through a mouthful of kernels. “I think corn tastes better than anything else you grow. It’s the perfect delivery vector for butter.”
He has a point, even though he said the same about my peas in June. Either way, these comments have a significant impact on my GSI, or Gardener Smugness Index.
We’ve been eating fresh picked corn every day for a week and plan to continue for two more. Then I’ll freeze and dry the rest, saving seed for next year. To satisfy David’s gustatory pleasure (and my own) I made two successive plantings two weeks apart to extend the season. I started the seeds inside and planted them out once their roots filled the pots, placing them 12 inches apart in rows that were two feet apart. Next year I’ll plant them farther apart and see if this affects the size. If successful I will call my new hybrid “Zea Willie Mays” because he, too, had big ears.
When I broke up the stalks for the compost heap I noticed that the sap was sweet so I wondered if I could turn this into syrup. Despite my advanced years I managed to turn on that Google thingy and enter “how to make syrup from corn stalks,” but all I found were countless references to using the starch from kernels or adding sugar and water to kernels and boiling them down.
Lacking what a trained researcher refers to as source documents I decided to play it by ear. Trial and error being a part of the scientific method, I first tried chopping the stalks in a blender. That only hurt my ears and burnt out the motor. Next I used my hand grinder, which sounded better but left me with repetitive strain injury. I was finally successful when I smashed the stalks with a hammer and chopped them into tiny pieces with a cleaver. The process was time consuming, but by then I was more concerned with its therapeutic value. Finally, I threw the quivering shreds into a pot of water simmering on the stove, heedless of the increase to my already massive hydro bill. We must, after all, make sacrifices for science.
I boiled up six plants, strained them out after three hours and reduced the liquid to about one-quarter of a cup of light syrup that tastes like diluted molasses. Once the pot was boiling the process took three hours in all; hardly worth the time and effort, but I can take comfort in playing my part in the struggle to advance human knowledge. For the record, I concluded that it is easier just to chew the stalks.
Events: Saturday, Sept. 22 at 10 a.m.: Dinter Nursery in Duncan is hosting a workshop on The Principles of Composting. Unprincipled composting can be learned by the study of modern political commentary.
Please contact mary_lowther@yahoo.ca with questions and suggestions since I need all the help I can get.
