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School Started

Getting back into the routine of going to school has kept us busy.  The corn stalks are still growing and we have picked some ears.  We'll be back to posting about our corn-y experiences soon, including the endeering ones ...

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Ear to Ear: Growth Update

We picked a single ear of corn earlier in the week: Japanese Hulless Popcorn.  We only picked one because most of the silks still looked quite fresh, and we want to have our ears as full of kernels as possible.

How kernels are born:  Each time a pollen grain falls from the top tassels (the tippy top of the corn stalk), usually with the help of wind, and meets with a single silk from another stalk, it produces a single kernel.  The more meetings of pollen and silk, the better the chance of finding full ears of corn.  This process is called pollination.

When we shucked our ear of Japanese Hulless we found it was full, but that it didn't look fully grown.  Our resource book, "Grow the Best Corn" by Nancy Bubel, says corn will mature at it's own rate.  The dates given on the seed packets do not include how the weather (temperature and rainfall) will effect the growth.  We decided to give this corn more time to grow.

Today we did our weekly measuring.  Pop found a PVC pipe and we measured it to be exactly eight feet long.  Since he is much taller than we are, we had him hold the pipe up to the very top of the tallest stalks and then we measured the difference from the pipe to the ground. 

All the corn is growing nicely.  We thought nothing would beat the Bloody Butcher for height, but we were wrong!  It has been dwarfted by Zea Mays Squaw Corn.  The seed package said it grows to 12 feet high, but ours is 13 feet and 9 inches high! 

In the picture you can see the remains of a scarecrow we made for the Kernel a couple of years ago when he grew his garden where our corn field is now.  It's kind of spooky looking! 

Goofing Off

Instead of measuring the height of our corn yesterday we decided to go to the Bridgewater Fair.  We're glad we did!

We bumped into Mr. Halas.  Mr. Halas was a great resource to us when we were first starting our experiement.  We got to briefly tell him how well the corn is doing.  He was happy for us.

Then in the judging tent we saw this:

It's corn from Larson's farm. We wondered: how could they be entering corn into the fair for judging when we saw their fields full of weeds? 

Later on we bumped into one of our Mom's friends, she had the answer.  She said that the field of weeds we saw is where Larson's grew cattle corn, not the sweet stuff we like to eat.  Apparently they're growing the sweet stuff elsewhere as they can be found at the New Milford Farmers Market on weekends.  Mom said she'll try to arrange for us to visit the Farmers Market.

Tomorrow is an important date.  Based on our calculations we'll be able to pick ears off one of the varieties of corn we've been growing: the Japanese Hulless Popcorn.  Does this mean we'll try popping it right away?  No.  We plan on picking just one ear to see how ready it is.  Then we'll have some more research to do on how to dry it so that later on we can pop it.  Our Aunt was telling us there is a place that sells popping corn right on the ear -- just stick it into the microwave and watch it pop right off the ear!  That sounds really cool!  We hope we can do something like that with our popcorn. 

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Bambi Brought Friends ...

... and we're hoping they're not eyeing the corn as a future tasty snack! (photo was taken by our Pop early this morning with his cell phone camera.)

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The Hard Knocks of Being a Farmer

This summer we have had several heavy rain storms that, based on our memory, seems to be becoming the norm rather than the exception.  These heavy storms cause much flash flooding which then causes a lot of damage.

On Sunday we measured the corn and meant to blog about it yesterday.  That didn't happen.  Instead the clouds were dark and heavy, and rolling thunder clapped loudly.  With those weather conditions we were not allowed to go outside and take some pictures for the entry.

Eventually yesterday's rain came, and when it did, it came hard and fast, smacking up against the house and windows loudly.  When it was over we received an inch and a half of rain in less than an hour!  We could hear our local fire station sirens blasting -- we're sure there were trees down, car accidents, and possibly more emergency needs all because of this rain storm.  Some places even reported hail!

We spent much of the late afternoon yesterday and today trying to save many of the bent corn stalks -- sixty-six in all were damaged yesterday.  We'll be lucky if we can save half!  We wonder if real Connecticut farmers experienced the same type of damage.  If we were growing all this corn to earn a living, rather than as an experiment, we decided we would probably find something much easier to grow!  The weeds seem to be doing quite well! 

Hide & Seek

It has been many, many weeks since our praying mantises hatched and were set free.  And it has been equally as long since we have seen evidence of them around the yard or in the corn field.  That is until today! 

After looking in on the corn field and discovering one stalk (Bloody Butcher's) had fallen down because of the stormy weather we had, we had decided to play some basketball.  So we went to our outside toy box to discover a single praying mantise was standing there, almost like he was watching us.  Next to him, we think, was his dinner, a hairy spider about the size of a nickle; he looked like he had already been "dined" on.  Ewwwwwwwwww!

We needed to get into the toy box so we could get our basketball out and did not want to hurt the praying mantise, so we got a stick and gently moved him over to a nearby bush.  (We think he was done munching on the spider.)  Mom suggested we move him to the corn field, but if our ladybugs ever arrive, we don't want him munching on them.  We think he'll be happy in the bush.

If he is one of our babies, then he has grown about three inches.  He's hard to see in the bush, but finally the camera was able to focus on him.  We think he's cool! 

Growth Update: Stalks Now Touch the Sky

Like we mentioned yesterday, it's been nearly two weeks since we measured the corn because we went away on vacation.  The Kernel babysat the corn field but did not do any measuring.  This means our records will show bigger growing results.

The first thing we noticed was that the Bloody Butcher stalks are so tall they seem to be touching the sky.  There is no way we can measure it like we used to.  So we had to measure it with a pencil!

We learned how to measure tall things using a pencil with information we found on this website: http://www.wikihow.com/Measure-the-Height-of-a-Tree.  They have three other measuring techniques on their website that we will try in the weeks to come.

Using the pencil measuring method, we found out that the Bloody Butcher corn still stands the tallest.  It stands at 10 feet!  It grew 4 feet in two weeks!  Wow!!  It's neighbor, the Japanese Hulless popcorn is showing red silks and growing 2.5 feet! (see picture on left)

Coming in second place for growth was Delectable Hybrid, growing just an inch shy of 3 feet!  What makes this growth interesting is that it was one of the last varieties we planted and it now measures 6 feet tall!

There was so much growth, we had to use the pencil measuring method on a lot of the corn varieties.  In the picture to the right we are measuring one of the varieties of Truckers Favorite corn.  Even the very last variety we planted, Ruby Red, is growing rapidly, going from 12 inches to 37 inches.  That means it went from seed to over 3 feet in barely four weeks!

Here's a bigger picture of the corn field:

... and we're back ...

We went on vacation to New Hampshire; we had a lot of fun!  It was a pretty ride there and back home, but we didn't see many farms.  Cities, yes.  Woods, yes.  Farms?  Barely!  We wonder why that is.

While we were on vacation one of our Mom's friends met with us.  Our Mom's friend is a famous crochet designer and she knew we were interested in corn and corn products.  So she gave us a pretty shawl she designed using yarn made from corn!  Here's a close-up picture:

It sure doesn't look anything like corn!  And it doesn't look like the normal wool yarn our Mom buys where it has many strands twisted together.  Instead this corn yarn looks like it's woven.  It has a little bit of a "squishy" feel to it (but in a nice way), is fairly soft, and it is pretty to look at.  Maybe when school starts in a few weeks we'll bring it in to show our Science Teacher, Mrs. Zea Mays.

The South West Trading Company calls this yarn "A-MAIZing."  Since corn has a lot of starch it in (which breaks down into cheap sugar which is why it is in so much of our food), someone decided they might be able to make it into yarn.  And they did!  The website here has more information on it.

Tomorrow we're back to measuring!

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Weekly Update: Storm Damage

On our way to a birthday party yesterday we got caught in a big rain storm.  The rain was coming down so fast and so heavy the windshield wipers were barely able to wipe it away.  Some cars even pulled off to the side of the road to wait the storm out.  Once we arrived at the party some people reported getting hail!  Hail?!!

We were worried about the corn.  How would it hold up to such fast and heavy water drops falling from the sky?

The answer: not well.  Many of the stalks were beaten down to the ground.

We spent a lot of time tying stalks to some bamboo rods we used in last year's garden.  With the air being thick with humidity, it sure made it a hard job to do!  We wonder what real corn farmers do.  Would they go out and try to fix their stalks, or do they wait and see what will happen to it?

When we were done with the corn we decided to check up on our vegetable garden and found two beautiful cucumbers! We washed and peeled one, sliced it up and added just a touch of salt.  It was delicious!!

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Weekly Update: Growth Almighty!

Measuring stalks is becoming tricky -- some of it is as tall, or is taller than us!

Bloody Butcher still continues to be the best growing corn for height.  Golden Bantam and Ruby Red have the best seed to stalk ratio.  We were really impressed with our newest, Ruby Red, having grown a full 2.5 inches since we planted the seeds last week! (see picture on right).

Earlier this evening we watered the corn since we haven't gotten much rain during the week. Some of the corn was watered by hose, the rest by bucket since our hose cannot reach the stalks in the back.  Since we were using buckets, we decided to give all the stalks a little bit of Miracle Grow fertilizer for the first time.

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Popping Movie Ticket Prices

Last week our Mom brought us and two of our friends to the movies.  Before going, Mom's friend suggested she buy the movie tickets at the local AAA branch.  So she did.  She paid $6.75 per ticket.

We arrived at the theater and Mom looked a little pale.  Had we not gone to the AAA first to get the tickets, she would have had to pay $10 per ticket.  Mom saved $16.25.  Since we had lunch just before arriving, we skipped the popcorn.  Later Mom said that was a good thing because a small bag would have cost an arm and a leg.  

We took out our movie stubs from last year and we were amazed.  Last year it cost $7.50 per ticket.  That means they're $2.50 more per ticket now. 

What does this have to do with corn?  Based on news reports, a man named Richard Gil, an economist, (someone who studies the production, distribution and consumption of goods) says to expect movie tickets to pop even higher -- all because the price of corn is going up.  Corn is needed for fuel, food additives, and for popcorn that allows theaters to keep ticket prices down.

In the Sunday, July 6th, Parade magazine we get in our Sunday paper, it reports movie attendance is down.  Mom bought enough tickets from AAA for us to go one more time this summer, but after that we're going to wait for the movie to come out on DVD.  Maybe by then some of our popping corn will be ready to harvest!

Corn Free?

We went grocery shopping with Mom one day and asked her if we could buy some corn on the cob.  She said no, that by the time we were done shopping we'd have more corn in our basket than we would know what to do with.  We were confused; they don't have corn on the cob in all the aisles! 

Mom told us to read the labels of the different items we wanted to buy.  We found she was right!  We found corn products in almost everything we love: hotdogs, sour pickles, lemonade, roasted peanuts, chocolate milk, and even in our ketchup.  We found it harder to find items without corn in it!  Mom said this makes us educated customers, and now that we know, our challenge is to try to buy as few products as possible with corn in it.  She said we should try going "corn free" for a day to see if we can do it.  We wonder if we can; as we looked around the store, that might not be possible!  Give up ketchup?  Oh, that will be hard to do!

According to this Missouri website, over 4,200 items in our local grocery store has some sort of corn in it.  The website claims it's even in toothpaste!   We checked ours, but couldn't find a list of ingredients on the tube.  We will have to check the next time we go grocery shopping with Mom, and we'll ask our dentist when we see him next week. 

The website says corn is in fireworks too!  We wonder, when we were celebrating the 4th of July, watching the fireworks burst in pretty colors high in the sky, were we really watching corn?  And if we were, wouldn't it have been funny if it popped like popcorn? 

Reaching High: Weekly Results

We were a-maized today to see how tall Bloody Butcher has grown. It's getting to the point where we'll start needing our parents help to measure it.  It grew 22 inches in the past week!  It is the tallest corn in the experiment so far!  

Along with taking growth measurements, we are also keeping tabs on how many stalks there are from week to week.  Keeping records of our stalk count shows that Bloody Butcher, Japanese Hulless Popcorn, and Strawberry Popcorn are showing a slow decline. 

We believe we found evidence of why:

This poor little stalk (pictured on the right) has been munched on nearly down to the ground!  We wonder if it's perhaps skunks -- you can smell they've been around the neighborhood.  Pheuuuuu!!  

 We decided to finish planting our marigolds, and finish putting red cedar mulch down.  Hopefully that will help ward off our pest, whatever it is.  The mulch will help the corn retain the water, helping it grow.
  
 Since the Heirloom Indian corn was a complete failure, we decided not to try regrowing it.  Instead, in it's place we will be planting Ruby Queen Hybrid -- it's a sweet corn that has red kernels.  It only needs 75 days until harvest.  We'll see how it does.

Jones'n on the 4th

Yesterday we celebrated our 4th of July by visiting the Jones Family Farm located in Shelton, Connecticut. For as long as we can remember, we have always come to this farm to pick berries on the 4th of July, and we love it! There is nothing better than biting into a freshly picked juicy strawberry!

Last year we heard loud booms -- what we thought were firecrackers being shot off in the area. But we were told that they have a cannon that they shoot off at regular times. The reason they do that is to frighten the birds. Frightened birds tend to leave their crops alone. That's good, because the strawberries are super delicious and we really don't want to share them with the birds!!

We have an Uncle that owns a little cannon, but we don't think he would lend it to us for our corn field, or that our parents & neighbors would appreciate hearing big booms everyday for the rest of the summer.  That's OK.  Right now birds are not a problem in our corn field.  It's those with hoofs and paws that we need to concentrate on.  

When we got home from strawberry picking we looked in on our garden.  We're going to get some interesting results when we go out there to do the official weekly measuring!

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The Superheroes are Coming! The Superheroes are Coming!

We're really excited!  Mom ordered our Superheroes -- 13,500 of them!  And we can't wait for their arrival because turning them loose is so much fun!  Last year, in our small garden we let 3,000 loose.  But 13,500 of them?  WOW!!

To help pass the time in awaiting for their arrival, we found this cool puzzle to solve: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/john.davies6010/ladybugs.html

We also asked Pop to check around his work and see if they have any bubblewrap they don't need.  We're thinking of recycling it by anchoring it around the outside of our corn field to see if it spooks those corn stalk-eating villians.

Weekly Results

We have been experiencing rain off and on all day today.  Good for the corn, but not for measuring it's growth.  About 30 minutes ago the sun was shining so we decided to give it shot.  That didn't last.  We got our last measurements while dodging rain drops.

It was no surprise to see how well Bloody Butcher is doing.  But we were surprised to notice that the stalk we noticed was munched on earlier in the week is completely gone.  What ate it??  We saw no footprints.

The biggest disappointment so far is the Heirloom Indian corn.  Still, not a single stalk.  Based upon the book we borrowed from our local library "Grow the Best Corn" by Nancy Bubel, published in 1981, many backyard farmers (people who plant just enough to feed their families), will stagger their seed plantings. They do this so that the corn will be ready at different times rather than all at once.  The question we are debating is, do we try planting it again, and if we do, how will that effect the results of our experiment of figuring out which corn grows best in Connecticut? 

The biggest surprise, in rate of growth for this week, was Silver Queen.  Last week nothing.  This week NINE inches with 13 stalks (out of 36 seeds planted.)  Runner up was Golden Bantam, measuring in at SEVEN inches and 30 plants! 

The biggest horror was Delectable Hybrid.  Earlier in the week when we let the baby praying mantises go we saw lots of beautiful shoots.  Now many are gone, some chomped down into little stumps.  We wonder if the same thing that ate the Bloody Butcher is now eating the Delectable Hybrid.

Hopes Dashed

We sent an email to Larson's Farm weeks ago, asking if we could go and talk to them about growing corn.  Every year they have huge corn fields, with a roadside stand, and at Halloween they have a big maze you can go through. 

Since we hadn't heard from them, and since our Mom believed they sold their farm, we decided to drive by it when we were in the neighborhood.  We were really sad to see this:

It's all boarded up and the fields are nothing but weeds. Another Connecticut farm is gone. It took some doing, but Mom finally found out the story -- a warehouse type of store wants to build there. We're not happy about that.
We learned that ten years ago there were about 1,000 farms in Connecticut.  Now it's barely over 300.

We will need to find another fairly local farm that grows corn to contact and see if they would let us visit and ask them questions.  This might mean we will need to look into New York, a neighboring state.

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Corn Stalkers

We have been under the threat of thunder storms all day.  We decided to spend the day inside and work on our summer reading, taking a break this afternoon to watch the 2005 movie, "Matilda" -- in Spanish.  (Mom said it would help us keep up with our Spanish studies during the summer break.) 

During the movie we received a phone call from our neighbor reporting she had seen a doe in our corn field.  We grabbed the camera and ran outside but the doe was gone.  We saw no evidence (hoof prints) she was within the area of our corn, but we do know someone, or rather something, has been munching on our young corn stalks!

Mom reported seeing the wood chuck yesterday ... wood chuck or doe.  Either way we have corn stalkers.  We'll need to figure out another way to keep them out of our field!

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More babes

We were right. 

Mom woke up early this morning to get a jump start on a project she has been working on.  While drinking her coffee and working on her blog, she noticed there were about a dozen new babies.  Upon closer inspection she could see them crawling their way out of the egg casing.  She called to us to hurry and come look.  Only we were still sleepy and quickness was not the first thing on our mind.

By the time we got to the container holding the casings there were about 100 MORE babies!  WOW!  We were excited!

What we should have been was quick.  We forgot that these babies are eating machines.  They were so hungry that they started to dine on each other.  That was gross!  But it's what they do.  So we got dressed for the day and ran outside to set them free.  The pictures shown in our blog entry are from today.

We are not sure if that is it for the praying mantises so we will keep an eye on the casings for a few more days.  It's been a lot of fun releasing them into the wild!