Fruit of Summer

Today I experienced what every true Iowan looks forward to from spring until the middle of July. We had sweet corn for supper! True Iowa peaches and cream sweet corn from a local grower. I bought two dozen ears of corn and there is not one kernel left. An Iowa dozen is 13 to 14 years of corn so our 6 diners consumed a total of 28 ears of corn and a half pound of butter. I have no way of measuring how much salt was consumed but I am sure that if we were to check our blood pressure it is temporarily higher than normal.

The experience is right up there with standing in the garden picking raspberries, warm and tart from the sun, as they ripen and popping them in your mouth. Our grapes will be ready for eating in another month. My strawberries are not doing so well. I have a new raised bed and I planted 75 plants this spring. Getting them planted was a comedy of errors. They were supposed to be shipped to me at the end of April due to our heavy spring travel schedual. Instead they arrived five weeks early. Luckily we had stopped over at home and found the poor things sitting by our door. Friends kept them in their refrigerator for us until we got back. The raised bed they were going in had to be finished and I finally got them planted. I had waited and waited for several years for this project to be completed. We had been without fresh strawberries for so long and it takes a year before they bear fruit. I have less than twenty plants left at this point and they are not looking so good. I don't know what has happened to them but I am going to have to start over again next year. It will be two years before we are picking strawberries from our garden again. I will have to take in a leaf and see if the plants have a disease and I will probably do a soil sample. I have three apples on my apple trees. They are still babies and not producing much but they are growing nice and tall.