Popcorn Party!

Today we harvested our popcorn crop.  Oh my, did we get a huge load of popcorn!  We estimate that we will have about 100 lbs of finished popcorn.   Can you believe that?  We can sell some at market when it is dry, and I think I know what everyone on our Christmas list will be getting this year as a gift from us!
     After the cobs dry a little bit on their own, we will don a pair of heavy rubber gloves and work all the kernels off the cob to dry further in flat pans.   We will have to keep testing them by popping some to see if we have the kernels dry enough.  When we do, we will put the popcorn in glass jars.  The popcorn will keep for years this way.   In fact, we are still eating the last of the 2012 popcorn, and it still pops up nice and big.   I think 100 lbs of popcorn should almost be a lifetime supply, eh?
     Here is a typical ear of popcorn:

The ears are very long and filled with kernels.  As you can see, almost every ear is at least 10 inches long.

 Harold gathered the ears and shucked them right in the corn patch, and brought out the ears in baskets.

Harold the "cornhusker"

He brought the ears out in baskets, and I cleaned them off a little more and put them in boxes to dry in the house.

Harold had lots of "help" from the farm cats who thought it was great fun to wander underfoot in the discarded husks!

Nine boxes of popcorn ears drying in the bay window in the sun.  Each box is at least 5 inches high and several layers deep.

All this talk of popcorn reminds me of one of my favorite books as a child - A story called "Popcorn Party" by Trudy Boyles and Louise MacMartin.  This book is from 1952.  It is a story about an old woman who wanted to give a party for the kids in her neighborhood, and decided to pop 5 lbs of popcorn all at once.   It filled her house with popcorn according to the story.   I must have read this book dozens of times as a child or had it read to me.  Such a cute little story!  My copy of the book was completely worn out and the cover was missing.   My sister found another copy of this book at an antique store a while back and bought it for me as a gift.   It is now in my library for grandchildren to look at.

A favorite book from my childhood!

A couple pages from the inside of the book.  Back in 1952 children's stories were full of cute illustrations.

So - I guess someday we can have our own 'popcorn party'!  But I won't pop 5 lbs at once!  Harold and I do enjoy popcorn as a snack on those long winter evenings when we play a game of Scrabble or cards together.   It's nice to know that we can grow our own snacks, too!  This year I also put lots of apple slices in the dehydrator, so we have bags of dried apple snacks, too.   Healthy snacks!