In the garden (as in life?), I tend to take on slightly more than I can comfortably handle. It’s hard to curb my enthusiasm for garden adventures. I always want to try something new, improve my efficiency, and ‘wow’ my family. But, perhaps expectedly, in the hum of the busy season, this often means my careful plans from the winter are entirely forgotten.
Carrots pop up unexpectedly because I didn’t mark it down when I planted them; fruit trees get tired of waiting for me and start to prune themselves; varieties of peppers are forgotten, and the saved seeds start being labelled as ‘the ones that were good in soup’. It all devolves into improv.
This year, I attempted to grow mini corn (as are often seen in stir-fries). When I selected the seeds, it was January. I might have re-read the instructions when I started the plants, in May, but May is already getting fairly frantic and I likely didn’t. By August I was harvesting my cobs, and the effects of over 6 months of progressive memory fuzziness started to show.
The cobs were well pollinated, small, yellow – they looked pretty perfect! But they were hard, and overly chewy even when cooked for a long time in extra liquid. They seemed like a dud, but not just because we didn’t like the variety… something was off.
This week, I finally figured it out.
Per the seed packet… one is meant to harvest mini corn BEFORE they are pollinated. And if you wait for them to be pollinated, well then they become a popcorn variety of corn.
I had saved one small final cob of the stuff, I can’t even remember why… perhaps I thought the chickens would enjoy it? But today, I de-cobbed the kernels and saved them for seed. A very small extra handful, I also popped on the stove (without a lid – another ill-advised shortcut. Those things get some air!).
So, haste makes waste and I lost a year… but I’ll never forget when to harvest mini corn, now! A bonus is that I managed to save more seed than I had originally purchased. I’ve learned from my mistake, but probably not enough to prevent myself from making similar mistakes in the future!
