Showing posts with label Kent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kent. Show all posts

Friday, August 29, 2014

A Corny Day

Thursday morning my son Earl brought over a big bag of sweet corn from Wind Swept Farm in Hiram. What a perfect day for freezing corn; a cool northern breeze and no need to run the air conditioner, just open the windows.

I was thinking about what my younger son Adam suggested; that I should jazz up my blog and write about something more exciting.  In our family corn has always played a central role in our lives.  We used to live on a small farm where we grew corn, froze corn, sold corn, and mostly ate corn.   Hmmm . . . well, I was excited to get a big bag of corn, so, this is as exciting as it gets for me. 

At our dinners, we were connoisseurs of all the different tastes and textures of sweet corn.  We had a running conversations on whether the corn was too young, too old, crunchy, chewy, starchy or just right.  I can still picture my kids' faces with a cob of yellow corn as their smiles and butter dripping down to their elbows.  It's safe to say that we were and still are a "corn oriented" family.

Today, during the process of peeling, cutting, cooking and freezing corn; I am reminiscing and remembering my family and all the times we spent together gathered around a big plate of steaming sweet corn.  It is exciting!     
Husking the corn on the porch is the best idea!
Yellow Gold!

A tall enamel pot is perfect to blanch the corn for 6 to 10 minutes depending on the size of the cob - according to the Ball Canning Book.

The hard part is cutting the corn off the cob. 

The satisfying part is seeing the final result!  
12 pints, three quarts and one sticky kitchen.  It was a lovely day.
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I wanted to add a picture taken on the Freedom Trail in Kent this week.  My neighbor and I took a walk and discovered lots of wild flowers blooming along the Cuyahoga River.  We also saw a big buck run across the path and jump a fence.  That was exciting!  How fortunate we are to have these hiking trails in our city.

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Market Knitting and Zoe's New Idea

Haymaker Farmers Market - Kent

How fortunate we are in Kent to have such a diverse little outdoor market to visit every Saturday morning.  It is like a neighborhood block party since you get to know all the vendors and are always running into someone you know.  It's one of the highlights of my week.

In case anyone is wondering, I am still attempting to knit a sock; I have not given up.  However, my sock has not grown much because every couple of rounds I run into a snag or a dropped stitch, or I'm going the wrong direction (4 needles) etc.  Thank goodness for the help, kindness and encouragement from my knitting mentor, Carol.  It amazes me how she can fix anything that I have messed up - at least in the knitting department.  Yesterday, Saturday, it was a lovely day to sit and knit and listen to the band, Rio Neon.  They were awesome!  Click Here to learn more about them!

Carol & Francis - Come to the market and they will help you learn to knit - Free!
Rio Neon

Flowers were everywhere at the market this week. 

Zoe's New Idea:

My granddaughter Zoe came up with some "nature" based activities this weekend.  One of her ideas was to make Potpourri from flowers and herbs that we have in our yards.  She picked a lot of different plants and we hung them up on the porch to dry.  Now we wait and see what happens!  


Next week is Zoe's birthday and she will be 10 - double digit!  What fun to have such a creative granddaughter.  

"Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them."  ~ A. A. Milne