Tale of Two Corns

First off, let me apologize to my avid blog followers for missing like a week of blogs and COUNTRY MUSIC MONDAY! Somebody kick me please.  So for all you followers,well I guess just Molly, I am sorry that I couldn’t waste five minutes of your past few days with my random ramblings and thoughts.

So in my opinion, the best month of the year = July, handsdown! And I have several reasons why,

1.    The most obvious of all, my birthday! Wha what!

2.    Lighting tiny explosives

3.    Amazing selection of summer sandals are in everystore!

4.    The grill gets fired up at every possible meal!

5.    County Fair time baby!

6.    And… SWEET CORN!!!

This past weekend, I was back at home on the farm and it wasSWEET CORN TIME! Now no matter where you come from, what your background,everybody and their dog loves some good sweet corn. 

Peyton loves some fresh picked sweet corn!

At my house for some reason we seem to think that there isgoing to be a shortage of sweet corn so we plant 10 times what the normalperson plants.  But hey, its allgood, because then we get to give away some great produce to friends and familyto enjoy.

So I lucked out this year because by the time I came home for the weekend, a good chunk of the sweet corn crop had been picked, so myonly task was to husk a few tub fulls for my own personal pleasure. 

Now I would like to debunk a myth about corn to many who maybe confused.  When you drive up anddown a country back road and you see all those rows of corn, that is fieldcorn, NOT sweet corn.  You have noidea how many times I have been asked by people if I ever get tired of eatingcorn since my family grows several thousand acres of it.  Just as an fyi, if you tried to gnaw ona ear of field corn, you would probably chip a tooth.

There are two corns in the US, and field corn is by far themost common, grown on more than 99% of all corn acres.  While a small portion is process foruses as corn cereal, cornstarch, corn oil, corn syrup for human consumption, itis primarily used for livestock feed, ethanol production, and othermanufactured goods. 

There are tens of millions of acres planted to field cornwhile only 600,000 acres are planted to corn.

34% of field corn supply in the U.S. is used as feed forlivestock such as beef, pork, and poultry.

37% is used for ethanol production. 

12% is exported to other countries

So all in all, when you go to the grocery store and bagthose bright green husked ears of sweet corn, don’t think that it came fromthose miles and miles of corn you see when your driving down the road.   There is a tale of two corns inNebraska.

...that's what she said

Ashley