82-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 16, 2003
Turie Alwine, 84-years-old, uses her specialty-made
corn cutter box devised by another participant at the
event, Gib Knepp.
Most of the women use cutters that creamed the corn, but some prefer to cut if off
with a knife.
This husking crew talked as fast as they worked.
Com M yodsr Vmn
LOU ANN GOOD
Food And Family
Features Editor
BELLEVILLE (Mifflin Co.)
Night had barely faded when
people gathered at Loren and
Wanda Yoder’s farm in Belleville
Tuesday.
It was 6 a.m. Loren had al
ready milked his dairy herd and
picked two pickup truck beds full
of lush yellow sweet com.
About 35 people gathered for
the fourth annual corn day locat
ed in what is known as Big Val
ley.
Eighty-four-year-old Turie Al
wine and Wanda are said to have
founded the annual event.
Turie explained, “Loren and
Wanda are so generous. They
had always planted extra com to
share with members at church
(Barrville Mennonite). We want
ed to help older people who
didn’t have their own gardens.”
The plan was to preserve com
and give it to older people to
enjoy throughout the year. The
idea has mushroomed. It’s no
longer reserved only for older
people, or for church members,
but for anyone in the community
who wants it.
After four years, the partici
pants seemed to know exactly
what to do. Some settle in lawn
chairs and begin husking the
ears. Some of the men build a fire
in an outdoor cooker, which
Loren designed especially for the
event.
Dozens of freshly husked and
silked com are dumped into the
boiling water for 10-minute
blanchings. The com is then
transferred to a large trough
filled with cold water. Water
squirted from a hose continually
cools the water.
After the com has cooled, the
ears are taken to the cutup crew.
Most use cream-style cutters,
but some of the women prefer to
use a knife to cut off the com
kernels.
The cut com is passed on to
women who fill plastic boxes and
bags with the com.
Necessity, they say, is the
mother of invention, and that ap
peared true at this event. Plastic
cups had the bottoms cut off and
were used as funnels to guide the
com kernels into the bags with
out spilling.
Wh( ' the br id br
The wood-fired outdoor cooker can boil 14 dozen ears
of corn at one time, but not as fast as participants husked
the corn. •
Taylor and Kirsten Kuhns help their grandfather, Loren
Yoder, cool off the corn before cutting.
Wanda Yoder plans the
annual com-day event on
her and her husband’s
farm, Belleville.
filled, Wanda hurried them to a
freezer.
Age showed no limits. Partici
pants from 9- to 89-years-of-age
worked diligently to keep things
progressing smoothly.
The Kuhns sisters Taylor, 9,
and Kirsten, 11, help with un
loading the ears from the back of
the pickup truck and serve as
runners for many errands. Their
brother Chase, 13, and cousin
Gabe Speck, 12, help with pick
ing and with transferring the ears
(Turn to Page B 3)