Isola de Este

Finally off the cob!

Oh yeah that's a lot of corn.  This is a polenta corn and there is about 20 canning quarts full or about 32 pounds.  It takes a long time to clean corn.  This batch took about 4 hours to remove from the cob, winnow and get into jars.  From here, the jars will go into the freezer for about 5 days.  When the come out,  I'll crack and then grind some every week.

And of course I get a lot of help when I'm taking corn off the cob.  To the right in red is the sheller.  Spying from underneath is Oatis.

When I get done, there's a lot of cobs and husks.  I set them aside and we use them in the BBQ.  They're as dry as paper.  Then the ashes with the charcoal go back in the field.

Of course not every cob gets selected.  These were the ones that did not make it into the seed crop.  I put all the seed from the bowl into jars.  Then I processed this lot.  They went into a separate jar.  I
will probably eat these first.

I did not select these because some were off colored.  See the purple corn kernels?  Highly dubious and all...suspected mild pollen drift from Taos Blue or Kaana Pango.  The cobs with inferior germination (spotty germ) were also not chosen.  They make a lot of chaff that takes a lot of extra time to winnow out.  Finally some of these little corns were tassel ears.  I don't know if by not keeping them it will eventually eliminate tassel ears.  I'll check with my experts.