Our garden produced a bumper crop of corn this year, yielding plentiful ears, longer and plumper than in less fruitful years. I no longer freeze corn, and I’ve never canned it. My wife and I just feast for weeks, gobbling corn-on-the-cob every evening like bears fattening for winter. Eventually we deplete the supply. Toward the end, when all of the exceptionally ample ears have been consumed, I pick the few remaining ears, which tend to be stunted or under-pollinated, resulting in cobs that aren’t fully kerneled. I picked what I thought were the final three ears, until I began cutting down the stalks. While whacking the base of each stalk with a machete and tossing the severed stalks aside, I noticed a few more substandard ears, which contributed to a satisfying final feast of corn for this year.

The weather forecast predicted, accurately as it turned out, the first frost of the season. Since there were still a few tomatoes and green bell peppers trying to turn red in the garden, I dragged a sizable, plastic tarp from the shed and used the severed corn stocks to weigh it down atop the tomato cages, to prevent the wind from blowing it away. Re-purposing is always good.

I have sections of portable fence, some 8 feet long and some 4 feet, that I use for three seasonal purposes. The sections are constructed of plastic lattice wired to plastic driveway stakes. I use them as a pea fence during the early summer. When the peas have gone by, I move the fence to surround the corn, which is just starting to form ears at that time. I hang a couple small baggies filled with used bars of soap on top of two fence posts. The soap, fence and a single strand of clothesline rope tied to the tops of the fence posts have worked to keep deer, raccoons, bears and other troublemakers out of my corn for many years. I hope I haven’t jinxed myself by bragging about this, but so far, so good.

The third purpose for my fence sections is as a snow fence. Sometime during the next week or two, I’ll arrange all of the sections in a straight line across our field to steer drifting snow away from our dooryard and toward a culvert. I’ll leave the snow fence up until it’s time to plant the peas.



Michael Hahn Band varies in size from a duo to a six-piece band, depending upon the size and budget of the venue. They love to make music for any occasion. For bookings call 802-754-8889.

Have a story?