If you’re curious about the complexity of my writing process, I invite you to recall my last post: I grew some corn, shelled some corn, ground some corn, sifted some corn, and then ate some corn.
Linear or not this paragraph is good enough for the Fox Head not to mention very sadly true:
“morel mushrooms fried in butter, fried chicken on Sunday, a warm tomato eaten in the garden, Thanksgiving pumpkin pie and homemade ice cream licked off the dasher are (or were) heavenly experiences for many of us, and not just because of the intrinsic flavors contained within each. It’s also the special sauce of ritual adjacent to each of these things that makes the experience what it was. It’s sad to me that our culture has mostly traded that for junk and convenience.”
Researched facts, with fun syntax! Loved the corn-porn analogy. And the emperor-has-no-clothes conclusion: "Here in the U.S. the objective of agriculture is not food, and obviously not environmental outcomes, but rather commerce."
This is good stuff. The amount of calories that we input for an acre of corn to get the calories from the crop (not food) is a raw deal. By the time we run a tractor over a field to till it, spray it, plant it, harvest it, haul it, etc... we use A LOT of calories! It's not a good return. We need farmers in Iowa. They are an important part of our economy. However, ANF should mean, America Needs Food-not ethanol! Wendell Berry has written about this also. Providing some diversity to our crops and getting rid of ethanol would go a long way. We also must not forget what the ag industrial complex and our farming practices do to our water quality.
The comment link seems to be out of sync with the articles. Might want to check on that. About 50 years ago I distilled life into food, shelter, and entertainment. This may be a little on the skinny side but makes for healthy living. To some folks, gardening is entertainment and gives them a feeling of self-sufficiency and satisfaction. BTW, I have a coffee grinder, stands about 3 foot tall that came out of a 1940's general store. I just might try that on corn next year.
Linear or not this paragraph is good enough for the Fox Head not to mention very sadly true:
“morel mushrooms fried in butter, fried chicken on Sunday, a warm tomato eaten in the garden, Thanksgiving pumpkin pie and homemade ice cream licked off the dasher are (or were) heavenly experiences for many of us, and not just because of the intrinsic flavors contained within each. It’s also the special sauce of ritual adjacent to each of these things that makes the experience what it was. It’s sad to me that our culture has mostly traded that for junk and convenience.”
Researched facts, with fun syntax! Loved the corn-porn analogy. And the emperor-has-no-clothes conclusion: "Here in the U.S. the objective of agriculture is not food, and obviously not environmental outcomes, but rather commerce."
Thanks Bob!
This is good stuff. The amount of calories that we input for an acre of corn to get the calories from the crop (not food) is a raw deal. By the time we run a tractor over a field to till it, spray it, plant it, harvest it, haul it, etc... we use A LOT of calories! It's not a good return. We need farmers in Iowa. They are an important part of our economy. However, ANF should mean, America Needs Food-not ethanol! Wendell Berry has written about this also. Providing some diversity to our crops and getting rid of ethanol would go a long way. We also must not forget what the ag industrial complex and our farming practices do to our water quality.
Chris,
The comment link seems to be out of sync with the articles. Might want to check on that. About 50 years ago I distilled life into food, shelter, and entertainment. This may be a little on the skinny side but makes for healthy living. To some folks, gardening is entertainment and gives them a feeling of self-sufficiency and satisfaction. BTW, I have a coffee grinder, stands about 3 foot tall that came out of a 1940's general store. I just might try that on corn next year.
It seems like by “grits” you mean ground whole corn. I had the impression that southern grits were not the whole kernel?
Do you soak in lime water to make the protein more available?