Why I Oughta...

During the Summer months of July and August, you can go to any Jewel or Mariano's or what-have-you and you'll come across sweet corn in a big bin.  On sale, you can sometimes get it for a dime per ear.  And, occasionally, you'll get some really great corn.  But, if you get to one of the handful of Farmer's Markets where they sell Mirai Sweet Corn, you'll be ruined for any of that grocery store stuff.  Mirai Corn is sold by an outfit called Twin Gardens Farm and they sell it in half-dozen bags that you see above. From Twin Garden's site : Mirai, pronounced ME-rye, was developed in Harvard, Illinois in the early 1990s. Mirai is a hybrid that combines the three main sweet corn genotypes, SE (sugar enhanced), SU(sugary), and SH2(shrunken). Mirai is not genetically modified and was bred naturally by cross pollinating the different sweet corn genes.   ... The seed was first introduced to Japan because they have small farms where much of the work is still done...

I recently added this Songbird Essentials Bungee Cord Squirrel Feeder to our backyard at Hornbeam Hill.  Those of you who have been reading for a while know that we have a set of bird feeders that we've set up close to our kitchen windows including a fly-thru feeder that continues to get raided by various critters.  Also, last year, I put out a Christmas-themed seed bell to only have it absconded with by someone within a few days . As part of the program to become a " Certified Wildlife Habitat ", we have to continue to provide food via feeders, so this also continues to check that box for us. I put this bungee cord feeder on a shepherd's hook attached to the top of our fence so the corn cob is dangling about three and a half feet from the ground (too high to reach from the ground) and about 15 inches from the fence (almost too far to reach from the fence).    I'm hoping that by putting a squirrel-specific feeder over on this side of the yard, they'l...

How incredibly frustrating!  These stinkin' mice have decimated our sweet corn crop.  They are so voracious that they eat through the green husks, eat the silk, then just hoss-down on every single kernel of corn.  At this point more than 1/2 of the crop is gone and the rest is getting over-taken by ants.  The mice have pierced enough corn to create a sweet mess - which is attracting the ants - and they're feasting too.  I've tried trapping them and even (gasp!) poisoning them, but the food supply is far too abundant for them to die off.  I'm in real trouble here because once they exhaust the corn, what's next?  Our tomatoes?  Or maybe even the pumpkins that we have growing.  I'm fearful that these little jerks will run the rest of the harvest.