Corn Picking: Part 1

A year ago, we were driving down the road and saw a sign for a pumpkin patch and decided to pull in.

We discovered when we got there that you can get a painters bucket and fill it with corn that you pick for $10.

We thought that sounded like fun so we got the bucket and picked corn till it was overflowing.

When we got home we husked them and stuck them in the fridge and grilled a couple for dinner.

We didn’t know how to preserve corn and we didn't get around to looking into it until it was too late and we had ruined over a dozen ears of corn.

It was tragic.

So we were determined that this year we would be better prepared.

We showed up at the pumpkin patch at 8:30am the first day it was open to the public.

We discovered when we got there that they had onion picking this year as well.

So we decided to start with that and got 2 buckets for $14.

They said there were red and yellow onions.

The first patch we came across was the red onions so we started picking some of them.







Then we started looking for the yellow onions and couldn’t find them for a while but finally came across them after some wandering.

There were only little golf ball sized onions and they were a bit scarce but I knew I would use more yellow than red onions so we had to work quite a while to pick enough to fill our buckets.

So we took the buckets back to the stand and they bagged our onions and the guy said “Oh, you got some boilers (referring to the small onions)”



I smiled and nodded but thought, a bit annoyed, “Well that’s all there was!”

We decided to get two more buckets and headed back out to the field.

Oh wait, I believe I forgot to mention that it was about 88 degrees and in direct sunlight.

I was cursing the lack of Fall weather in Hawaii at this point.

So we got back to pulling onions when I noticed a portion of the field that looked different than the rest and walked over and just started laughing.

It was rows and rows of large yellow onions. Easy picking.

Oh well.

After filling those buckets it was on to the corn picking.

You will have to forgive the lack of pictures from picking the corn because at this point I was hot, tired and dirty and didn’t want to bother with the camera anymore.

This year they had boxes for the corn which worked out well because you could fit a lot more corn in the boxes than the buckets.

So we bought 4 boxes for $40.

Picking the corn was awful.

I hated going though the rows because they were really close together and I felt like there was something crawling on me all the time.

So we filled our first two boxes (or so we thought) and emerged from the corn and decided that I would sit on the path husking and organizing the corn int the boxes while Stephen picked more.

I quickly learned that after I had husked and organized the corn in the box, we could fit a lot more than we thought.

Each box held a little more than 100 ears of corn.

So for a few hours, I sat, in the dirt, in the direct sunlight, and husked (at least) 400 ears of corn.

But I took it like a man and didn't whine or complain.

Wait, I am not a man.

I am a little girl!

And yes, I whined and complained like one too.

I wasn't built for hard labor (except that which involves my uterus of course).

But it was all worth it considering we got 400 ears of sweet, fresh (obviously), local, organic corn for about 10 cents a piece (usually costs at least a dollar an ear at the store).

We finally drove away, sweaty, dirty, sunburned at 1:30.

Then it was onto the preserving.