Did you ever help shell corn for animal feed?
By dragon54u
@dragon54u (31633)
United States
May 16, 2008 8:05am CST
My whole family used to sit outside near the corn crib by the barn and shell corn for the livestock. We'd get an ear and hold it in both hands then squeeze and rotate our hands in opposite directions. The hard corn would fall off the ear and we'd toss the cob into a bin--Grandpa used them somehow, I don't remember what for--and the corn would fall into a basket.
Grandpa sold some of the corn and the rest went to feed the livestock. I remember turning the crank on some kind of hand mill mounted to his workbench but I doubt he did the entire crop like that!
Those were good days. Families sat together and worked, laughed and drank homemade lemonade. If you have any similar memories I'd love to read them.
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1 response
@JoyfulOne (6231)
• United States
19 May 08
I've shelled lots of corn in my lifetime here on the farm. Haven't really had to do it by hand, we have a machine that hooks up to the tractor to do it with. Sometimes we have a milling company do it after we bag it up and deliver. It's hard work shelling it by hand!! Even the kind your grandpa had on the workbench took a lot of muscle power. At one time we had a dairy here, there was 50+ milking cows, and 5 horses...that's a whole lot of corn! Now I just have crops, there's corn, but it goes to feed the cattle at a neighboring farm, so I don't have to worry about shelling anymore, or even harvesting it :-)
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@dragon54u (31633)
• United States
19 May 08
Wasn't it great? I loved being on the farm! You were fortunate to have a machine on the tractor, but I really enjoyed sitting with everyone and joking and laughing. You had a lot of livestock!! Grandpa raised Hereford cows, people would come from all over the state to buy his cows or leave their females with him for a bit. I didn't know why for years and years! 
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@JoyfulOne (6231)
• United States
19 May 08
Our herd was Holsteins. I sure don't miss that morning and evening milking!! When all the elders in my family were still alive, I used to grow a 5 acre plot of nothing but sweet corn. My kids and I would keep it picked, and then once I'd bring the wagon back, all the elders and their families would be there and we'd spend the day canning corn, and making creamed corn and all. Good times! We all had enough corn for our canning and freezing to last the whole family throughout the winter. (And I used to have a really large family up until about 10 years ago!) Anything extra I'd sell at a farm stand out at the end of the driveway, and there was always enough to donate to the church's functions, and the local vol. fire dept. clam bakes. Sure miss those days, we all had so much fun. Now I only grow enough sweet corn for myself lol. Nice to meet somebody who can relate to all that! Have a nice evening....Joy
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