The Sweet Taste of Summer

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“Watch your fingers,” my mom always said, looking worried when I moved from bagging to replace my sister on the cutting line. I loved this part of the process, using the sharp, thick knife that I thought looked like a machete from Africa. Maybe my mom had reason to worry since I was rarely thinking about what I was doing, making up stories in my head instead. But I loved cutting corn, and the meaty remains left on the cob made a wonderful treat.

Within short order, the accumulating bags of corn were divided up according to each family’s needs. Often this figure was determined by when they had run out the previous year. “Well, I took 20 last year and ran out in April. I guess I’ll take 30, which should last all year,” my sister calculated, knowing that if she ran out, she could come and steal from my mom’s deep freeze. I counted out 30 bags that year and put them in a sack for her to take home.

Canning, freezing and drying were all part of my family’s heritage, putting away the summer’s bounty for the upcoming winter. My mom grew up on a farm carved out of the Indian lands in South Dakota, and my stepdad had been a Depression baby from Oklahoma. We were taught that putting up summer’s harvest was part of the annual cycle. And our one day of hard work with the corn was celebrated when we opened that first package around Thanksgiving, tasting sweet summer in every bite.

My mom and stepdad no longer own the small farmhouse where I grew up, but Mom still cans every summer. And although their garden has become smaller, they still have food to share. Most of my siblings and I have moved far from home, but memories of corn-freezing come back whenever I pass a roadside stand selling the sweet ears by the dozen.

Maybe this year, I’ll stop and take a Saturday to put away the taste of summer. If we eat corn once a week, I’ll need 52 pints. How many dozen is that?

Lynn Salisbury now lives in Illinois, 1,600 miles from the cornfields of her childhood. She drives by fields of corn each day on her way to work, and when she’s not working or driving, she enjoys attending the small-town festivals and farmer’s markets in the area.

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