Rewilding My Lot

On June 7, 82 days after planting seeds, I harvested two ears of corn to test them.

They were cooked and eaten. The taste was fine, although the kernels were a bit chewy. That was perhaps from harvesting them too late or not watering the plants enough. This was a bicolor variety (Ambrosia), so I was expecting the different kernel colors.

So then I harvested all the ears that looked fertilized. There were a couple that were tiny and with white silks, so I left those (silks connected to kernels that have been fertilized turn dark).

Here is the harvest, divided up by mound. Mound 1, closest to the house is on the left. All of the mounds had four plants, except for Mound 1, which had only three. Mounds 2 and 4 were created with the addition of a buried raw fish.

I decided to cook the entire remaining harvest at one time. All 12 ears were shucked, which revealed four that were apparently completely unfertilized (top right in the next photo) so they were discarded. The remaining eight ears were boiled and any edible-looking kernels were cut off and collected. That yielded a side dish of corn for two people! The cobs were cut into 2-inch pieces and everything not eaten was given to the compost.