Around Here| Homegrown Popcorn

Well hi there! Today I thought I would share a little update about life around here….on what we like to call the Brundage Homestead.

We have been spending lots and lots of time inside, frankly too much time. When fall turns into winter and the days grow short, the cold arrives (and the tireless hope for a white Christmas). It is part of the year that we embrace and enjoy….that is until Christmas is over and cabin fever sets in. By January I am ready to be done with this season all together – and yes, I am aware that Winter only officially starts December 21st.  For some reason it has affected me more in the last few years to have the dark evening time, which makes it hard to get out and enjoy nature.  I feel guilty that my daughter has been playing a lot more with the electronics, and we have all been indulging in a bit more tv time. We break up the days by having some family game nights and try to plan outdoor activities on the weekends at least.

On the bright side, since there isn’t much to do around the garden this time of year it does provide for a chance to catch up on inside projects. I keep reminding myself I need to work on finishing Avery’s quilt that has been about 4 years in the making….yep.  It is also the perfect time to do some decluttering. I managed to do a pretty good job on my scrapbooking supplies, with kids’ clothes and kitchen stuff in the works now.  I also did a quick and ruthless cleanse of my ever-growing photography prop stash. It actually feels really good to let go of some things I have been holding on to that no longer serve me. Now that my personal photography style has become a little more refined I was able to make better decisions on what fits. In fact I think I will be putting together a little photo prop swap/sale at my studio in the very near future, to give some of these goodies new homes.

I  am sure by now you are wondering, well what about that homegrown popcorn??? Ins’t that the title of this blog post anyways?  Yes, thank you for sticking with me here as I rambled a little.  Last year instead of regular sweet corn we decided it would make better use of our resources to try growing some popcorn.  I ran across the seeds in the Territorial Seeds catalog and until then I never even realized that it was a different type of corn used for eating fresh then for popping. After some reassurance from my favorite helpful gardening people over at GardenSphere Nursery, we started one little package of seeds indoors in some trays.  The starts did ok, I never have that great of results starting seeds inside, and when it was time to plant then in early summer they were just a couple inch tall green shoots that didn’t look much different than a blade of grass.  I’ll admit I was a little skeptical that they would grow. But they did, and come fall we had a 4 foot by 4 foot patch of popcorn to harvest.  We let the ears dry in the husk for the recommended 6 weeks, and then some. In fact, I think we let them dry a little too long because when we popped the first batch only about half the kernels opened. Luckily my friend Google tells me that I can add a little moisture back  with a spoonful of water and an air tight container.  Although they didn’t all pop I can tell you this: it was the tastiest popcorn I have ever eaten.  In fact we added no butter and only a light seasoning with salt & pepper.  My mouth is kind of salivating right now thinking about it.

Oh yes, I was really impressed that ALL of these different colors of corn came from the same packet of seeds.  It was so pretty once it dried and we opened up the husks. Kind of like a little bit of sunshine on a winter day.

Its time to start thinking about what we plan to grow this year in our little garden.  More of this, less of that, maybe try a couple new things.  For sure I will be planting a small patch of this popcorn again.  What about you, have you started planning what you will plant in your garden this year?