Lessons Learned in Growing Popcorn

I had a lot of ambition last year to plant a ton of popcorn so we'd have enough to last through to the following fall. It started off well. We planted 2 long rows of popcorn, at least triple, maybe even quadruple, of what was planted the year before. I kept it watered and weeded and it turned out to be beautiful stalks of popcorn!

I picked it all at the end of September. As I was picking, and the bags were filling up, I began to realize how much work I had made for myself. It was taking what seemed like forever to pick and I hadn't even started the time consuming part of the process!
I started husking the popcorn the next day. Still ambitious. As I husked the popcorn, I kept thinking "What did I get myself into? This is going to take forever!" It took a week or two of working on the ears of corn a little at a time, but I got them all husked. I know it doesn't look like much, but there must have been at least a couple hundred ears of corn! (Plus I husk them one layer at a time so the husks stay attached to be able to hang them up.)

So they were husked and I felt like I was DONE! I couldn't imagine going through ALL those ears of popcorn and bundle them to hang up to dry. I procrastinated...probably a couple more weeks. I finally made it back out to hang them up and it was too late! Most of the corn had molded! I ended up having to throw out probably 5 or 6 ears for every one that was still good and I could keep.

My stomach sank with every ear I had to throw away. All that work for nothing! (It did make a good snack for the cattle though! LOL!) Why didn't I just keep with it?

There was a bright side! I no longer had to hang all that popcorn up to dry and I had A LOT LESS to have to shell when I finally got around to it just before Christmas! :-)

I learned a couple lessons throughout the whole ordeal. The first lesson was to not plant so much! This year I'm only planting one row! That's plenty for our little family. There is no reason to go overboard and even if it doesn't last all year, we can always buy it in the store!

The other lesson I learned was to just stick to it and get it done! I hate seeing food go to waste. Even though it never occurred to me that the popcorn was going to mold, I really should have known better. This year I'll be hanging it up to dry right away so it doesn't mold!

In the end, after a few hours of shelling and a very sore thumb, I still ended up with quite a bit of popcorn. I nice big gallon bag FULL!

See! It's plenty! :-)

Be sure to check out my giveaway for a children's book!