food that comes from farms – katie: normal girl

Bounty From The Farm: Sweet Corn

While milling around my local farmer’s market last weekend I visited one of my favorite local farmers where I found a lovely pile of sweet corn. He had just harvested the corn earlier that morning so it was about as fresh as I could get without growing it myself! Armed with my bushel of corn, I decided that I just had to tell you about one of my favorite veggies: sweet corn.

Is all corn “sweet corn”?

Sweet corn has a higher sugar concentration than its counterparts, flint and dent corn and popcorn – all of which have a high-starch content. Flint and dent corns are typically grown with the intention of processing into corn meal and flour for many corn-based foods like tortilla chips, polenta and grits. Sweet corn is grown to be consumed as a whole kernel, whether cut from the cob, frozen or canned.

Is it ripe?

As soon as sweet corn is harvested, its sugars begin to breakdown, so the smaller you can make the farm-to-table gap, the better. Corn is ready for harvest (and eating) when the silks begin to turn brown but aren’t dry.

Peel the husk down a little bit; if the kernels go to the top and are plump (not dimpled) then you’ve got a fresh ear of corn. As a final test, puncture a kernel and if the juice is milky then you’ve got corn at its peak of freshness. Time to eat it!

If you’re ready to get cooking, this is (in my humble, corn-loving opinion) the easiest way to cook and shuck corn.

katie: normal girl

Just in case you didn’t know…

Husk – the green, leafy covering over your corn.

Silk – the stringy bits at the top of corn. Along with the husk, they are removed before eating the corn.

Shuck – the processes of removing the husk and silk from the corncob or just another word for peeling – you peel a banana; you shuck corn on the cob.

Ear of corn – refers to a single cob of corn, in or out of the husk.

Check out more from my Bounty From the Farm series.

Bounty From The Farm: What are pullet eggs?

This past weekend I visited an adorable little farm out in the country, Lake Meadow Naturals. There’s a gravel lot where you park between the duck coop and the goats, and in front of you is a lovely field with rolling hills, huge oak trees and grazing horses. It’s as close to perfection as you can get.

On this little farm they also have turkeys, bunnies, beehives and, of course, chickens. The happy little hens have a massive coop with a big open yard for them to go wandering about. This is where you’ll find the pullets and their eggs. These female chickens are under a year old and have just begun to lay eggs. After they are a year old, they will be referred to as hens. A sign in the farm’s store explains the eggs:

The most special, and most precious, of pullet eggs are their first lay. These eggs have in them all of the vital essences of the chicken, which it has stored up its entire life. No subsequent eggs will ever taste the same. They are in limited supply as they only lay them in the first few weeks.

Once the pullets start laying regularly, their small pullet eggs become mediums, then large and sometimes extra large. You don’t typically see pullet eggs in the grocery store because their small size makes them less desirable to consumers and they are often sent to processing facilitates to become scrambled or powdered eggs. However, if you can find them at a local farm or farmer’s market, I suggest giving them a try. They are tasty on their own with a rich yolk that fries up nice but they are also great for making baked goods and are often coveted by pasty chefs for their rich flavor and consistency.

If you decide to bake with pullet eggs, be sure to check your recipe measurements. Most recipes call for large or extra large eggs which average about 3 tablespoons of egg. Pullet eggs are much smaller, so you may need to use 2 for every 1 large or extra large.

Now you know what pullet eggs are and that you should definitely try them. Happy egg hunting!

katie: normal girl

Check out more from my Bounty From the Farm series.