My history with Corn

Can you guess what I've been doing? I was very generously given about 30 ears of corn and I couldn't wait to get it in the freezer.

As I was cutting the corn off the cobs I was taken back to the very first time I did this as a newlywed...19 years ago. Our first house was a little 18x18 sq foot house, known as the Hill House. It sat on a little hill on Trevor's Grandmother's yard out in rural Manitoba. Trevor was farming back then, so he was out on the field. His grandmother had a house on the same yard, it was her summer house. She had an amazing garden that always produced such amazing vegetables. So she was showing me how to freeze corn, because corn was part of  many meals that keep a southern manitoba farm boy happy. It goes well with roast beef, and pork but most importantly Warneki.

Our first house

She showed me a simple way to blanch, cut and freeze corn. Now she had more than 30 ears of corn...more like 300 (really don't know if I am exaggerating, after all it was 19 years ago and my memory isn't stellar these days). Where my fond memories are is in how we talked as we were doing this together. I think she enjoyed the company just as much as I did. She talked about Trevor as a kid and about the 1lb perogy she had made Trevor for his birthday one year. She has such a gleam in here eye talking about her family. I felt so honoured to be there in that moment. Taking in the fountain of knowledge from her life experiences. I can still hear her laugh and the odd snort that came with it.

As I sit here and write this the flood of memories are coming back. We asked her what she wanted in rent for us living on her yard, she told us that the extra coffee maker we got as a wedding present would be just fine. The wiener roasts after a day of combining. Watching her go after a garter snake with a weed wacker.  Hearing her laugh just as hard as the guys after I snared a gopher and it ran down my back. Sitting in her cosy little fireplace room reading as the guys were out late on the combines, she said it was to keep me company, but I know she enjoyed having someone else there as well.

I always had a smile on my face when I saw her little tan truck pull up to her house. I learned so much from her and very thankful for the memories I have.

Grandma Rempel in her garden