I looked out the window and

What did I see? Popcorn, and not even from an apricot tree! No, instead it was hanging in the house.... all over the house. Last year we left the popcorn to dry on the stalk (it worked well when we grew it in Idaho) but a monsoon rain came and made all of it mold. This year, in October, as soon as it was ready we walked the rows, plucking ears and hung them in the house to dry.  Cody came home from work and asked if it wasn't a little early to start decorating for Thanksgiving? I almost smacked him, did he really think I would hang five hundred ears of corn in my house for decoration?

 The first step when the ears are dry is to shell the corn.  Our corn sheller is old but works perfectly, the cobs came out clean. Next year however, we will build a box for it. The bowl is just to small to catch it all.

 After it is shelled we need to winnow it. For this a fan was set up outside.

Working in small amounts, we slowly poured the corn from one bowl to another. This allowed the light weight chaff to blow away.

 You can see the chaff on the ground around the bowl.

The kernels are pretty.

and they grind perfectly to make cornbread.

There is no better popcorn than fresh from the cob.

But Zac judges popcorn on how well it flies.....

guess we passed there too!