Bob asked what we were all doing this summer and so I report below about one of my summer activities.
The last weekend in July, Sally and her daughter Roxanne joined me at the Fawcett family farm in West Branch, Iowa for the annual Fawcett Family Sweet Corn Festival, a combined very large family reunion and work session to pick, boil, cool, cut and scrape, bag, and freeze a lot of Iowa sweet corn.
The reunion/festival takes place at the Fawcett family fresh spring fed pond called Cold Spring Pond which includes a lovely beach house “cabin”, a gazebo, floating dock, fire pit, and high dive included mostly for children although grandparents showing off in front of the younger and more easily impressed of the grandchildren occupy it frequently as well.
I took my own knife with me for this task as the last couple of times I participated in this event I was assigned a knife not worthy of my speedy talents. I think I was the fastest cutter in the crowd, although Fawcett when he took a break from cooking was a close second. Sally and Roxanne may disagree, but hey, they are not writing this piece, right?
Many family members attending the reunion/festival work a goodly portion of a day and then take home as much frozen corn as they feel they can use. John and I have worked frozen Iowa corn into a lot of recipes.
As background, Fawcett’s brother, Ken, along with a nephew, and son-in-law farms the family farm in West Branch, Iowa—some 2,000 acres divided about equally between soybeans and corn. (Those farming include John who spends two weeks in the spring and two weeks in the fall in West Branch to help with the planting and harvesting). Each year the Fawcett’s also plant about one acre of sweet corn, two separate plantings about two weeks apart and within each planting 3 different maturity dates, giving six separate pickings and preparations for freezing over a period of a month. (A planting of sweet corn lasts only about a week after maturing, so time is of the essence). The varieties raised by the Fawcett’s include Ambrosia, Incredible, and Serendipity. (Ambrosia is the bi-colored corn and is my favorite)
We began the weekend with a Baptism on Friday afternoon followed by a celebration dinner at the pond that evening, we did corn Saturday until noon, followed by a family reunion dinner at the pond on Saturday evening, followed by a 25th anniversary celebration of the building of the Pond held Sunday afternoon with some 200 guests, and then more family reunion on Sunday evening.
Sally and Roxanne peeled off from more family reunion and spent Saturday evening In Iowa City—some 10 miles to the West and home of the University of Iowa—at a wonderful outside tapas bar sipping wine and enjoying 3 separate wedding parades thru the center of town. Iowa City is charming. Built on a bluff overlooking the Iowa River, It was the original Capital of the Iowa Territory established in 1839
and is full of lovely historic buildings and homes.
Sally and I and Roxanne departed at the end of the weekend, but the Fawcett’s work was just beginning as they proceeded to then host the annual “Hoover Fest ” in downtown West Branch and the Pond the following weekend. Lots of Hoovers, food, activities and remembrance ceremonies. A lot of work too.
Photos of the location (the Pond) and some of the work are included here. I have to say I was pretty busy cutting corn and so I have no photos of the picking of the corn (John and Brother Ken), the cooking of the corn in giant vats (right behind the shuckers, but I never got a good shot. John was in charge of the cooking as well as the picking. Sally and I and Roxanne cut and cut and cut.
We had about 20 people divided roughly as follows: two picking corn and hauling it back to the pond in two pickup trucks, four to five folks shucking corn as fast as they could, two cooking it in very large vats, these same two cooling the corn immediately upon completion of the cooking, two guys carrying trays of the corn into the cabin to the two tables of cutters,-- about six or seven of us all together, and the cutters then passing their product to the baggers who bagged, labeled and transported to the freezer the product.
We worked maybe three hours put away into the freezers 233 pints and several quarts in the Saturday morning session. There were some sessions before we arrived and there will be in the days after we left. Lots and lots of sweet corn.
We had such a good time and I was glad Sally and Roxanne could join the fest. It is a five hour drive from Kansas City, and so an overnight or two is required. Good fun is good friends and/or family. It doesn’t much matter what you are doing or where you are doing it.
I hope some of you will share your summer activities. I know I would like very much to hear about them and I am sure others would enjoy these reports as well. We need to do a better job of staying in touch?
And, if you know of any good corn recipes, please forward.
Claudine
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