AW SHUCKS!!

Fawcett Family Sweet Corn Festival, July 31st, 2010.

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

First (and last) Grandkid Posting, with apologies.

My only grandkid Lily, 13, appearing at The Chicago Metro and at another local venue. CD soon to be released.

They keep coming in

From Claudine

From W.C.Fields,this plaque was hanging behind a bar in Nags Head NC where I had breakfast recently.

"A woman drove me to drink and I didn't even have the decency to thank her"

Some quotes for the thinking person

The future ain't what it used to be.
Yogi Berra

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.
Douglas Adams

We are the only animals that let our kids come back home.
Bill Cosby

and finally......

I really didn't say everything I said.
Yogi Berra

Have a very good day!

A note from Claudine

Hello Rex and classmates;

What a great adventure. I have never been to Hawaii, and now may never accomplish this journey, but can appreciate the beauty and allure.

I learned about 10 years ago to never, never, travel without a black sweater to put over your shoulders or knees. I now own 25 due mostly to business trips to San Fransisco where when packing for each trip I stupidly thought it was going to be warm.

And, now that US Air required me to pay $7 for one of those paper this blankets, I carry that too.

Old age brings cold.

The apartment rents sound just like New York. I had a friend who flew for American Airlines who rented an apartment the size of my dining and was glad to get it never mind it took half her salary.

In any case ,your Hawaiian adventure sounds like the fun we all should be having all the time,, never mind the frostbite (smiley face here).

Beats Iowa in some ways, but certainly not in others. Report to follow.

Thanks for sharing with us.

Isn't retirement great??

--------------------------

Restaurants in Kansas City:

I had some many minutes to spend in a bookstore recently and came upon and purchased two foodie books: "500 Things To Eat Before It's Too Late", and "Roadfood" by Jane and Michael Stern. Roadfood writes about Arthur Bryant's, Jess and Jim's, LC's Barbeque, Niecie's, and Stroud's Oak Ridge Manor. "500 Things to Eat..." writes of Arthur Bryant's, Eden Allen Cafe, Jess and Jim's, Niecie's ,Strouds and Woodyard Bar-b-que.

I remember eating at Strouds out on Troost many years ago but after it moved North of the river I was there perhaps once and then time became too short when I was in KC so I have not been there in some 15 or so years. The "500" says "Stroud's in Kansas City, MO, "makes the best chicken dinner in America." I guess you cannot receive a review much better?

Have any of you been there recently? I am puttting it on my list for my next visit to KC. Salads and grilled fish will go off my list for a short while.

I so not know The Eden Allen Cafe, Woodyard Bar-b-que, LC's barbeque or Niecie's.

Niecie's sounds especially interesting. It is lauded for its Bar-b-que , as well as for soul food (waffles and chicken and pig ear sandwiches) . I am putting this restaurant on my next visit list as well.

Do any of you know these places? Would love to hear your opinion.

Claudine

Talk about exotic tropical trips.

Hi there fellow Pirates - Bob Pflanz here.

I don't go to those romantic exotic places that some of you go when you travel. I often go to the wrong side of the tracks and see the urban sprawl. It wasn't intentional, it just happens. When I go to the mountains, I see abandoned mines and sludge ponds. When traveling to the ocean, I see soap suds and dead critters. This year for something different, I went to southern Texas in the summertime. Here is what I wrote on my blog:

How hot is it in southern Texas in August? I'm glad you asked.
I just returned from the Rio Grande valley in southern Texas (Down near Brownsville). I had been told that the heat down there is different because it's a “dry” heat – they LIED!

It's so hot the bees sweat.
It's so hot the armadillos are packing their bags and moving north.
It's so hot the surviving cows give powdered milk.

It's HOT! But there is a nice sweltering moist breeze from the ocean that forces you inside most of the day. It's a nice place to visit (in the winter). There are a lot of Winter Texans (who aren't there right now) who know better than to visit in the summertime. You live and you hopefully learn. Without air conditioning, it would really be uncomfortable. As we were returning north we passed just east of Dallas where it was the 13th day in a row over 100 degrees. Our car thermometer hit pockets of heat in certain areas that topped 107 degrees. It was good to get home to our comfortable 95 degrees.

It's so hot the trees are looking for shade.

Hang in there and really appreciate fall.

Waikiki Wanderings

Claudine, I promised a shorter travelogue than your Tripoli trip. Since I was gone only 5 days, it is bound to be more brief.

It's a six hour flight from LV to Honolulu, so I stupidly spent an extra $25 each for two exit row seats. What a 5'6" man and 5'1" woman need with extra leg room is probably worth debating; however, the deal was done.

This particular aircraft, instead of an exit window, had extra exit doors mid-ship that came equipped with an attached evacuation slide. This was enclosed inside of a plastic covering attached to the inside of the door. An interesting feature was the seams around the covering that allowed in outside air, which at 25,000 feet is probably the same temp as dry ice.

Now, six hours with ice-cold air blowing on your lower extremities is like hooking yourself up to intravenous refrigeration fluid. Compounding the discomfort was my decision to wear shorts and flip-flops on this trip between warm weather climes. I have never been so cold except for once while shoveling snow in Boston and accidentally locking myself out of the house.

After we landed and received emergency treatment for frostbite, our daughter, whom we were visiting, dropped us at our Waikiki beach hotel just in time for bed.

We've been there a few times and know an inexpensive joint for breakfast, so headed there as soon as we got up.

We spent the days on the beach, evenings and the weekend with our daughter. Gwen has a $215 K condo, the size of which must be 200 square feet easy, overlooking the Ala Wai canal. Only two people can visit at a time, but only one can sit down.

We made the required trip to the north shore for some scuba and grilled shrimp from one of the many shack-like places that do a land office business on the weekends. Pretty good stuff, though don't ask for their health inspection certificate. Same for the hole-in-the-wall place in Chinatown where we had dinner.

Our last day we took a catamaran into Waikiki Bay for some great views of the city and Diamond Head.

Took the red-eye back, but had my exit row seats refunded and reassigned to some unsuspecting tourist from Peoria.