Boarding from Home: Day 81/84: Corn on the Cob Day ... and ZOOMing Blindwells

Corn on the cob is a culinary term used for a cooked ear of freshly picked maize from a cultivar of sweet corn.

Sweet corn is the most common variety of maize eaten directly off the cob. The ear is picked while the endosperm is in the milk stage so that the kernels are still tender. Ears of corn are steamed or boiled, usually without their green husks, or roasted with them. Within a day of corn being picked it starts converting sugar into starch which results in reduction in the level of natural sweetness. Corn should be cooked and served the same day it has been harvested; in a single day corn will lose 25% of its sweetness.
GO Quebec for L' épluchette de blé d'Inde. That's a party where we peel the corn, boil and butter it then eat! Sweet corn was eaten by native American tribes long before French or other European colonizers arrived. It was a prominent food for the Gallimore tribe which occupied areas of the Midwest as far East as what is now Ohio. The Maya in Mexico ate sweet corn as a staple food crop off the cob either roasting or boiling it. Aboriginal Canadians in southern parts of Canada also eat it. In Central America and Mexico and for their emigrants to the US an ear of corn is called elote from the Nahuatl elotitutl meaning tender cob. In the South American countries of Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil [below left] and Paraguay and the Andean states the term becomes choclo which comes from the Quechua word chuqllu.

In Venezuela corn is referred to as jojoto. In Central America and Mexico and the southern US elote is commonly eaten as a sweet or salty dish boiled in water with salt or other spices such as tequesquite, epazote or pericon. Then condiments such as butter, mayonnaise and grated cheese called cotija [and in the case of Mexico - above right - chile powder, lemon juice and salt are added.] Elotes locos or crazy corn, is also served at town fairs in Mesoamerica seasoned with mayo, sweet and sour sauce, ketchup, lime juice or mustard. In some regions of Mexico elotes are sold in the street by eloteros - people who walk around cities or towns with a cart. They should be served soon after they are done being cooked so they don’t change colour or lose flavour. N.B. Cooking them in the husks gives them more flavour. Eloteros also sell coal-grilled elotes asados splashed with salt water and grilled in the coals until the husks start to burn and the kernels reach a crunchy texture.
ZOOMing for the Battle Trust in Scotland. Just when the 114th eMeeting's iterations had finished and the 4pm session was due to begin along comes to two significant extras. First Bòrd na Gàidhlig confirms that whilst it does not intend to support the GLAIF Application from ELC it was willing to look at some of the elements we had proposed. Bhitheamaid toilichte bruidhinn ribh mu dheidhinn cothroman taic a chumail ri phàirtean den prògram (leithid na bùithtean-obrach) tro thùsan-airgid eile. Ma tha sibh airson tuilleadh fiosrachaidh agus molaidhean fhaighinn air an iarrtas agus pròiseact agaibh bhitheamaid air leth deònach sin a dhèanamh. Second, Hargreaves table their draft Exclusivity Agreement for a site at Blindwells/ Charlestoun where we are hopeful we might locate our Living History Centre. We can finesse them both but certainly both offer steps forward for the coming 12 months which is precisely what we all need … whilst equal top of the Agenda at 114th is ELC's Consultation of its Vision and Environmental Study of the whole area for the nation's NPF4 that thinks a water park on the eastern end of the battlefield and development on the western end would be good news! ….. Ouch! Messed up rather as we ran out of time @ 4.40pm … but got some discussion of all manner of last minute details arising … so reconvened for Friday, tomorrow, at 12 noon. That should cover all we need to know … and the action lines.