This Just In

Our family loves popcorn.? Plain, with butter, with cheese, with all the heart attack causing crap from the movie theater, we just love popcorn, period. When we went to Just a Plain Farm (i.e. the pumpkin patch) in October,?we decided to pick a few ears of popcorn from The Poppin’ Patch.? We’d never done this before, and thought it would be fun to make our own popcorn, for ourselves and for gifts to others, to share the joy.

Evan picked 6 ears.? There were three different colors: red, white and yellow.? Evan picked at least one of each color, and we took them home.? I shucked the ears and set them on the counter to dry.? The pumpkin patch recommends drying the corn for about a month to 6 weeks, then it’s ready to be taken off the cobs.?

Last Sunday night, I took the kernels off the cobs as I watch The Next Iron Chef finale.? So engrossed in the show was I that I didn’t notice the huge blister forming on my thumb from rubbing the kernels off the cobs.? I got it finished the next morning, and swished the kernels around in my sieve for a while to remove any remaining chaff.? Then I put some of the popcorn in a cute little jar I had.

Isn’t this just the cutest thing? So country, I just love it.

I also had enough to fill a snack sized ziploc bag…I’m thinking I will design bag toppers for them and give the popcorn as gifts for Christmas, as part of cookie tins and gifts for my friends with kids.

The popcorn is white when it pops, it’s only colored while in kernel form.? This is a fun gift the whole family can participate in making–from the picking at the patch to the shucking, drying and de-cobbing.? Plus you’re giving an organic gift that probably helped support a local farmer…how can you beat that?

Happy Popping,

S.