I was up the road talking to a farmer. The only corn he sells is at a
> roadside stand. He planted LESS corn this year for sale. He figures
> that corn prices are going to be so high that people will be buying
> less, so he's planting less so he isn't caught with extra corn. Hmmmm.
Hmmmm, indeed. It seems Farmer McFudget slept through his Agricultural Economics class.
Pat wrote in news:01b2946a-da8c-45ca-8aac- snipped-for-privacy@25g2000hsx.googlegroups.com:
I'm not sure that makes sense - I'm sure he'd still sell for less than the gorceries, whcih attracts people. Also, corn for food will be harder to get as more and more is dedicatedto ethanol production (even tho' plain ol' native Switchgtrass, IIRC, is more efficient, btu that's another story). Prices are also up along with anything and everythign telse that gets shipped by truck - higher fuel prices means higher checkout prices. People still need to eat, and corn will still be cheaper than many other things.
"Don" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news4.newsguy.com:
And personally, I'd much prefer paying farmers directly for produce, even a the same price, because it's not like most of them make all that great a living by farming - plus, it's so much fresher, and usually just-picked, as opposed to spending 3-7 days being shipped. And it's local.
I have to fine a farmer's market here (havent' yet), but in the past, I've always gone to them, and/or local farmer's stands. The quality is jsut so much better, and it benefits the farmers more.
I had similar thoughts...
Legumes feed the soil, and corn depletes it.
"Don" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news4.newsguy.com:
Re: appearance, it's been said for at elast 3 decades that one of the largest contributors to food prices in the US has to do with appearance - if there is even the smallest blemish, groceries will often reject produce because people "don't like the looks of it".
Interestingly, neither being completely unripe, nor hard as a baseball, counts as a blemish - go figure...esp. givent hat fruit does NOT ripen when it's picked green and left to sit - sure, some of th estarches convert to sugars, but the fruit is not taking up any more water or soil nutrients or anything. So it's not ripening, it's just aging.
Concommitantly, I read a couple months ago that stufies show the nutritive value of crops is actually *declining*, because they're forced to grow too fast and -yup! - picked while unripe.
Re: corn, I like it with grilled steak and white lima beans (I boil the dried beans in low-sodium 99% fat free free range chicken broth). I l like to pop teh cobs into boiling water for just a couple minutes, so it gets just soft enough so the bits don't stick under my gums (yeah, I know, what an old fart =:-o) and eat it plain. No butter, yuck.
It's also good left in th ehusk, wrapped in foil, and grilled - it sort- of steams.
It's not bad for you, it's just bad to eat *too much* (that includes 'too often', because it is so starchy/sugary - OTOH, it's certainly no worse than pasta or white rice...). It's fine as one small part of a balanced and varied diet.
"Don" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news4.newsguy.com:
Soybean is a legume, so it takes nitrogen from the air and fixes it into the soil in a form that other plants can use - sort-of like free fertilizer.
I could do without the butter - I use a little butter on average MAYBE once a month. I just lost the taste for it. If I need to "butter" a pan, I use either X-tr virgin olive oil, or walnut oil (which is lighter), or even lighter, almond oil if I have some on hand. If I want to pan "fry" somethign like battered catfish (which is a PITA so I seldom do it), I use grapeseed oil.
"Amy Blankenship" wrote in news:GMhVj.28681$ snipped-for-privacy@bignews1.bellsouth.net:
Plus, corn is a *cultural* staple - I mean, who ever heard of a picnic/cookout/BBQ without corn on the cob? No joke, corn is just quintessentially *American* (as in all of th eAmericas), given it's predecessor (teocinte) was native to Mexico and IIRC the area of the US SouthWest, and maize was developed by the First Americans.
Corn, potatoes, and tomatoes.
(Wild rice was harvested by them as well, but rice is of course not unique to the Americas.)
Anyhoo, seriously - corn is more than just a food, it's a cultural icon, a symbol, as much a part of the American identity as other foods are part of other cultural identities.
Hey Amy, are the one I see online who's worked with Authorware?
That is one thing that I do ;-)
Cutie then. ;)
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