Yesterday I got some Jersey Fresh corn from my favorite local farm (Donaldson's). It's a little more pricey than the grocery store and most of the other farms around here, but it's so worth it.
I love husking corn. It brings back happy childhood memories. My dad and I always husked the corn together. That was "our" job. We'd be out on the back porch, chatting and husking. There is something very peaceful and satisfying about peeling back the darn green outer husks, revealing the tender light green ones inside. And there is a definite skill to knowing the exact right moment - when you have peeled away just enough - to grab the silk in a fist-full and pull it all off in one big bunch. If you try too soon, the silk breaks off mid-way and you are left with a mess of hairy fibers on your corn. If you wait too long, the silk all separates into its individual strands with a similar result.
In all my years of husking corn I have never seen what I saw last night(although I asked one person so far and she was all like, 'Yeah. I've seen that about a thousand times.'). One ear had a few extra tassels sticking out the sides of the ear. As I peeled closer, I saw little baby ears! Never saw that before and thought it was so neat.
It got me thinking about the first person to figure out that there was something worth eating inside that husk. Wild corn. Can you imagine?Corn must have been wild at some point. Before civilization began cultivating it. I suppose it's not that big a mystery - someone probably saw some animal eating it and figured, "well it didn't kill the beast over there, I suppose it won't hurt me."
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