Archive for June 18th, 2012

Lotta Summer Shuckin’ Goin’ On!

June 18, 2012

I used to be a cutter-tender during the height of the corn harvest.  It was a dangerous job because the cutters were made of very sharp blades that turned at a  high speed at just the right diameter to cut corn off cobs for processing in a canning factory.  The cutter tender got part of the incentive bonuses for each line tended.  Most cutter-tenders were given three lines to tend.  I got six.  At a time when wages were under $2.00/hour (minimum wage was about $1.60/hr. then), the bonus cash was a welcome addition to my pay check.  Bonuses were based on how many cobs per hour went through shucking and cutting.

If a cob got stuck in the cutter, it decreased the number of cobs per hour that went through the line, because the cutter had to be stopped and the cob removed.  If too many cobs got stuck, then the line was shut down to adjust the inside diameter of the cutters to match the diameter of the cobs running on the line.

I still buy canned corn when I need to.  I even buy the corn canned with the label for the company where I worked.  The way I prefer to eat corn is straight from the cob, still steaming from the cooker.

I’m rather like my paternal grandmother when it comes to corn on the cob . . . love it!

We’ll be shucking a lot of corn at our house from now til the last fresh cob comes in, but that will be a while yet.  The water bath makes the house too hot, so I use my pressure cooker.  The corn is done in less than ten minutes!

I took the photo below yesterday.

Corn on the cob trivia: for every kernel of corn on the cob, there is a piece of silk in the tassel.  If you need some quiet time, or a disciplinary measure for children, hand them a cob and have them count the kernels and then the tassels!  ;-)

GN hasn’t been given that task yet.  Someone else in the household knows it from experience . .

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