Popcorn!

One of the things I admire about Travis is his drive and determination. If he is passionate about something, he puts his whole heart into it and works hard until the task is complete. This year, he set a goal to grow his very own patch of popcorn with the hope of being able to have enough popcorn kernels to have at least one bowl of popcorn. He did some research about which kinds there were, and finally decided on strawberry popcorn (they are little cobs with red kernels) because it had a growing season that was compatable for this area. He carefully prepped his plot, planted, and diligently watered and weeded his popcorn crop. He encountered problems along the way like raccoons (which he set traps for), wind and watering issues, but he problem solved until the issue was resolved. After months of work and waiting to harvest the cobs and then dry them, he finally got to pop a bowl full of the whitest popcorn you've ever seen (with enough kernels for several more bowls)! Way to work hard and follow through with a goal, Travis! Getting his plot ready. He carefully planted them the correct depth and distance apart.

He found several cobs off the stocks and eaten on by a raccoon. He wasn't very happy about it, but set up a trap to try and catch one (but never did).

We had an early frost that killed the corn plants and Travis was worried that his corn wasn't mature enough, but he harvested it anyways and then kept the cobs in a mesh bag in the basement to allow them to fully dry out. He and Christian would sit for a couple of hours and get all the kernels off each of the cobs. Their poor fingers were raw from the pointy kernels.

It was a happy day when he got to finally pop his corn! I couldn't believe how white it was and I loved that there was still red on the popcorn even after it was popped. The popcorn was smaller that what you buy at a store, but tasted just as good!!