Popcorn...

Late last night we were watching FoodTV, and it was the story of Orville Redenbacher. I was watching his early years, and it brought back a flood of memories from my own early years.

I was telling Ryan and Lindsay how, as a child, we would glean popcorn. The farmers in our area always grew fields of popcorn and in the fall, after they harvested their crops, Mother and I would take burlap sacks and walk the fields, picking up the ears of corn they missed. We would fill our bags, dragging them behind us, and then would sit around a wood stove in the evenings and shell the ears of corn into quart fruit jars. And did we throw the corncobs away, nonono, of course not, we threw very little away, Mother would save them in a bucket, dip them in kerosene and throw them in our wood heating stove to get the fire going. OMG, this sounds like something from Little House on the Prairie. But you have to remember, this was fifty years ago in rural Southern Illinois... Both of the kids were looking at me like I had totally lost it, and it does sound rather bizarre to talk about, but that was the life of a country girl in those days.

The best part was popping the corn right away. When fresh picked, it still had a high moisture content, so the kernels wouldn't actually pop, they would just swell to a large size and they were really crunchy, and REALLY good...

But it was not a good time walking the fields, picking up that corn. It was usually muddy, and cold, and the bags were heavy, but we did it, and it was free. And to think that today, we just go pluck a jar off the shelf at the grocery store, for over about $4.00 for a quart of Orville and take it home to pop.

Life is definitely much better, now... Well, except for the $4.00 a quart....