Year In Pictures: 2010/08/28 - I Am Cornholio!

[plonq]

After the farmers' market today, we drove down to Morden to check out the Morden Corn & Apple Festival. I had never checked out their web page prior to linking it here, so I was expecting something set up out in a hay field, with hay rides, and tractor pulls and whatnot. Instead they had turned downtown Morden into a festival site, with block after block of vendors and pavilions and live bands. They also had a few blocks set up as a midway with all the usual carny activities and rides. It was much bigger and more impressive than I had been expecting.

There was free corn and cider available to visitors, but the line for the corn was crazy long - almost as long as the line for free food at the St John's Park picnic last week. Manitobans like their free stuff. Rather than wait in the long line, atara and I walked up to the end of the block and paid $.50 for some corn from one of the vendors. It tasted just as sweet and saved us an hour standing in the rain. They had bottles of butter-like liquid available for the corn, as well as salt and lots of napkins.

Mmmm. Check out that greasy goodness.

This stretched on for blocks. We brought home some kettle corn and cotton candy for our efforts, as well as a cool new bag for atara, but I'll let her tell you more about that.

The kabob chef stepped back for a break and a drink of water, so I stepped in and snapped a picture of the grill. We did not eat at this place, in part because the line for food was very long, but it smelled astoundingly good.

If you are going to busk in the rain, it's always nice to have Dad along to hold the umbrella. She was a decent violinist. atara tossed a quarter in her violin case after I shot this picture. Does the lady in the background count as a photo bomb?

Even with an industrial corn cooker on the go, they could not keep up with the demand of hungry (and cheap) Manitobans out for a free lunch. They had a powered corn shelling machine set up to one side, but we did not get to see it in operation while we were there.

This lady was like the soup Nazi for corn. Once you got your cobs, she chased you away promptly, and yelled at people who did not move away fast enough. I guess your temper can wear a bit thin when you've been handing out hot corn to an endless line all day.

Comments

[hartree.livejournal.com]

*mmm* Sweet corn. I'm a big fan of freshly picked and boiled corn on the cob.

[kfops.livejournal.com]

On CBC radio they were interviewing some folks that had come up from Tennessee to BBQ at the Morden Festival... I guess they had some big BBQ competition or the like there this year. My curiosity was piqued, but if I drive to Morden then I'm half-way to my home town and would probably catch Hell for not going all the way!

[atara.livejournal.com]

We've started soaking ours in water while still in the husks, and then grilling it until the husks are charred black. Let it sit for a few minutes so it'll be almost cool enough to handle (I can never wait long enough), peel back the husks into a handy handle, the silks come off easily, and you've got hot steamed corn with a touch of charred taste from the grill. Yummm.

[atara.livejournal.com]

The freaking BBQ thing was like on the other end of town. So we didn't go. So strange that it was so far away. :/

[plonq.livejournal.com]

I was going to mention the barbecue cook-off in my post, but we skipped that. For some reason they moved it from the festival grounds to a campground at the other end of town. We had a look at it when our shuttle bus stopped in there on its circuitous way from our car to the main grounds, but we didn't feel like fighting traffic to get all the way over there again after.

[plonq.livejournal.com]

We soak ours and grill it in the husk.

(Which might look something like this if we had a charcoal grill: http://www.grilledcornonthecob.com/)

[pierrekrahn.livejournal.com]

I don't think that's a photo bomb.
Doesn't it have to be done on purpose for it to count? I think she was just being clueless and standing in a weird spot.