CORN, SHORN AND ADORNED

Wait just a darn minute.  Technically, there are at least another two weeks of summer, right?  What’s with the temperatures?  Never mind that we should be entitled to a couple of weeks of Indian summer.  Yes, those glorious crisp, sunny days that carry us through to the first holiday of the season, Halloween.  Well, at least we still have the sweet corn of the Indians if not an extended summer.  That corn too is gloriously crisp and sweet.

Once upon a time, seed providers across America vied for attention by filling their catalogs with purposely dumb, or “corny” jokes.  Then they carried those chuckles into the printing of vegetables metamorphosed by human or animal characteristics on the seed packets, trading cards and stickers for the shipping crates of their produce.  Today those farmers and catalog purveyors are treated to unamusing metrics about yields per square foot, fertilization and other such good information but......

Corn is, of course a staple grain.  That’s actually how it came to be known as corn instead of maize, as the English called all staple grains corn, be they rye, barley, wheat, etcetera.  Corn is, after all, a grain as John Barleycorn could have attested, it is a foundation of many alcoholic beverages.  Accordingly, the Americans produced a corn liquor which is also known as white lightning (which should never to be confused with moonshine, an entirely different brew).  Corn liquor is not aged and is as much as 160 proof.  It remains as popular as ever.

Along about this point in the harvest season nearly everyone in the neighborhood has indulged in the distinctly undignified dining experience of corn on the cob.  Admittedly, it’s hard to improve on.  Once sated by that sloppy, slurpy buttered extravagance, one can begin to enjoy the many natural flavor partners of the toothsome kernels.  There are dozens of corn recipes by multiple contributors on the web site.  Have a look, all you need to do is enter the primary vegetable and you’ll have enough recipes to keep you busy for the rest of the season.  Today’s recipe, thanks to our Market Master, Kay Carroll, is called Corn Tomato Salsa. 
 
Below we have provided a few links to remind you how easy it is to freeze this month’s fresh corn for winter eating.  Your palate will thank you for your industry along about January.
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http://allrecipes.com/video/4067/how-to-freeze-corn/?internalSource=videocard&referringContentType=search%20results&clickId=cardslot%2011
 
https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/shopping-storing/freezing/freeze-corn