Thursday, April 23, 2009

And now it's all paying off!

So, as you regular blog readers have probably noticed, I like to let my kids "help" me cook. Sometimes it seems crazy...everything takes twice as long and is quadruple as messy. Nothing ends up turning out exactly as intended, and the days of perfect presentation are long in the past. And sometimes, when the stars align, we have catastrophic misadventures that result in the ruination of well-loved and much missed appliances.

But then, something happens that makes all that extra work worthwhile.

Last night the boys wanted to husk corn for me*. I knew it would take them forever, and it would be a mess. It was raining, so I couldn't take them outside, so I knew out entire kitchen would be covered in corn silk, requiring a far longer cleanup than if I just husked the corn myself. But, it's been many months since they got to husk corn, and hey, I've somehow convinced them the chore of husking corn is actually great fun. So I let them go at it.

After a few minutes, I heard from B-man, "Mommy! There's a big WORM on this corn!"

Yep, he came across the dreaded corn worm. The very reason why I will *never* switch to organic corn. I peeked at it enough to verify that yes, it was an absolutely disgusting worm, then calmly asked him to throw the ear of corn away.

So, 3 years of having kitchen helpers? 3 years of fights about who gets to shake the spices in first? 3 years of over- or under-salting every dish? 3 years of cleanups that take twice as long as the actual cooking? The destruction of my blender? Every minute of it worth it when I didn't have to be the one who found the corn worm!


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*As an aside, at our local (giant) farmstand, they had fresh corn trucked in from Florida. Usually, it's so not worth buying anything but local corn as it's always a disappointment. But N-man LOVES corn (in fact, he ended up eating three ears last night!), so when I saw it, or more precisely, when HE saw it, we bought some. It ended up being really good! I mean, no local fresh summer corn, but way better than the frozen stuff we've been eating all winter.

6 comments:

LauraC said...

I hate corn worms too! One time I was working in Salt Lake City (I used to be a traveling software consultant) and I found a roadside farm selling corn... 12 ears for $1. I bought 12 ears and found 12 corn worms. I've never bought corn from a roadside stand since.

Nancy said...

Eww eww eww!!!

My Dad used to grow his own corn. Luckily, he didn't get a lot of those icky worms, but *shudder* yep - every once in a while.

I've probably asked you this before...which farm stand do you go to?

jongirl said...

Knowing your severe adversion to all things ICCKY, this blog made me suspect you might have considered beforehand the possibility of lurking corn worms!
Talk about Laugh Out Loud ... I'm still rolling!

Jeanne Estridge said...

I've never found corn worms, but a couple of times I've grown corn, only to have it infested with mold that turns the kernels dark blue and grotesquely swollen.

Ish!

What A Card said...

Hey Nancy, During the winter/spring, we go to Wilson Farm. It's kind of a hike, but it's the best (in a reasonable distance) I can find in the off-season. They had baby chicks and baby pigs this week in their barn, so the boys were loving it!

In season, there are a ton of more local little farm stands, or the farmer's markets.

Ronnica said...

Definitely! Did it freak him out too much to have help the next time you buy corn to husk?