DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Yes. I remember gasoline at $0.12/gallon, but in those days it was exceptional for a car to reach 100,000 miles. And you probably had to replace the rings every 20,000.

B1rdr Loc: Northern Virginia

I agree. I don't want to go back to those days because I occasionally got to drive the 54 Ford sedan if I was going to go somewhere "important".

bikinkawboy Loc: north central Missouri

As for ethanol production, EPA mandated reduced emissions in cars. One way to do that was to add an oxygenator to gasoline. One option was TCB ( those initials could be wrong), made from crude oil. That didn’t meet the requirements of yet another mandate, which was to produce renewable fuels. In addition, that stuff is extremely poisonous and somehow it had made it into some of the water supplies in the Denver area. That stuff was ditched in favor of ethanol, which is an oxygenator, is considered renewable, won’t taint underground water supplies and isn’t poisonous to the extent as is the TCB.

It’s a no win situation. Carbon dioxide is produced when ethanol is produced. Some is used to carbonate soda, but much is released into the atmosphere. To solve that problem, an underground pipeline system is in the works to send it to North Dakota where it will be pumped underground. Pipelines have environmental effects, which is supposedly why our president nixed the Dakota Access oil pipeline. Don’t use ethanol and air pollution increases. Use the TCB and underground water supplies are made unsafe for decades. Producing more ethanol requires more nitrogen fertilizer be used and natural gas is used in its production. More natural gas production means more well drilling. Park every gas powered car and use electric cars and you devastate large portions of three South American countries strip mining for lithium. Use wind turbines to charge up those batteries and you must consider that each turbine kills approximately 250 bats and birds (in a Missouri study) and in the Midwest most bats are endangered Indiana Bats or threatened Gray Bats.

In short, no matter what we or the world does, somebody or something is going to take it in the shorts.

fantom Loc: Colorado

Been getting fabulous, large, corn at six ears for two bucks.

Tom467 Loc: North Central Florida

Jerry, I solve the corn issue by growing my own. I plant “silver queen.” I never buy ears of corn in the grocery store because as soon as corn is picked its sugar starts to convert to starch. For corn on the cob, I pick the corn in my garden then run to the kitchen and place the ears of corn immediately into boiling water or toss them into the microwave.

StanMac Loc: Tennessee

Elections don't cause or cure inflation. The market forces of supply and demand are at work, as well as just plain corporate greed. All things being equal, corporate profits would not show such gains as they have if prices just reflected the increased cost of the product inputs. We should be thankful we only have inflation to deal with.

Stan

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

"...as soon as corn is picked its sugar starts to convert to starch."
Old technology. It is true that the sugar starts to convert to starch, but the rate at which it converts has changed with newer varieties. Supersweet white corn can last for a week or more before noticeable loss of sweetness.

'Silver Queen' is an old variety of white corn with a long growing season. There are many newer varieties that are better now. Try Silver King (sugar enhanced), Camelot (SuperSweet), or maybe Avalon (Synergistic). They will all last longer than Silver Queen. You might also try a shorter season corn since that will allow you to get more harvests in a given season. (If you mix supersweet varieties with other varieties, be sure they don't pollinate at the same time).

There are regional preferences in corn. I'm not familiar with all regions, but mid-atlantic states tend to prefer white corn, NorthEast states tend to prefer bicolor corn, and mideast states tend to like yellow corn. Having tried them all, I find minimal taste differences, and good corn is good no matter what the color might be.

On the farm stand, we got (from another farmer) sugar enhanced or supersweet corn. We considered it good for 2 days. 3 day old corn went to the chickens or horses. We did not have enough available land to grow our own. If we had filled all our land with corn we would have been able to supply our stand for maybe 3 weeks. The field length for good corn was 3-6 days. Before that, little taste. After that, the taste started to decline and the kernels got tougher. So you have to plant corn in small blocks, spaced appropriately in time. Also, different varieties do better in different seasons. You don't want to grow one variety all year.

"The time to pick the corn is when the pot is boiling" -- That's the old style, no longer true. Although when I would go to the field to pick up the corn from the farmer from whom I bought it (around 6am), I would always have a couple ears for breakfast. Raw. If the corn is good, it doesn't have to be cooked.

PS: one field of sweet corn was adjacent to a field of cow corn. One time I snuck over to the other field and picked a couple to try out. Eating them raw, and at the right degree of development (similar to sweet corn) they were sweet, not as much as the sweet corn, but a bit tougher. Edible, but not something I'd like to eat regularly. Cow corn is allow to mature past the stage that is considered peak for sweet corn.

PPS: there are also regional differences in taste relative to corn development. In Eastern Massachusetts, a lot of farms hired H2A workers from Jamaica. They liked their corn about a week older than what most of our customers wanted. I would usually pick a bag or two of old corn to keep them happy.

edrobinsonjr Loc: Boise, Idaho

It was 24 cents an ear last week and it very good corn.

Ed

clickety

No one mentions that by adding 15% ethanol to gasoline you reduce power by 1o0-15 % or more thereby reducing gas mileage by 10% or more. Then when you add in the fuel used in the production of and bulk transportation of the ethanol, the same or greater amount of petroleum is still consumed consumed. A lot of expense for no reduction in the net petroleum burned. (But it’s believed to deliver votes)

bob44044 Loc: Ohio

$7 a dozen

bikinkawboy Loc: north central Missouri

Yes, 100% gasoline contains something like 120,000 BTU and pure ethanol is something like 76-77,000 BTU per gallon. And generally Diesel engines are more fuel efficient because diesel has more BTU than gasoline.

They claim it takes more energy to produce a gallon of ethanol than the energy contained in that gallon. That may be but they ignore the value of the distiller’s grain that’s left over or the calories contained. Or the value of the carbon dioxide produced
when used for carbonation purposes.

Like it or not, it takes energy to produce energy. Refining crude oil requires LOTS of energy, let alone the energy needed for drilling wells, manufacturer the pipe, transporting the crude and so on. Even firewood. Gas for the chainsaw or if you chop it by hand, the energy used to mine the iron ore to the heat used to smelt the iron to make the axe head. Even picking up sticks by hand requires you burn calories, which are replaced by eating food that needed energy to be produced.

Putting a BTU price tag on something results in a very long laundry list of energy requirements.

Reuss Griffiths Loc: Ravenna, Ohio

Did you check that "half gallon" They're selling ice cream in 3 pint sizes these days. In NE Ohio, ears of corn sell from 30 to 60 cents an ear depending on sales, etc. Recently read that sweet corn production is only about 1% of all corn grown with most of the rest being dent corn that is used to make corn oil and high fructose corn syrup and lots of other stuff. Don't know if it's used to make ethanol.

bikinkawboy Loc: north central Missouri

Yes, dent corn is used for ethanol. Another interesting product corn starch is used for is biodegradable clear plastic food containers. And the foam packing peanuts that melt in water? Also made from corn starch.

clickety

I understand using the term “dent corn” also more commonly known known as “field corn” as a method of differentiation from the edible variety for the purposes of this discussion, but I believe that sweet corn also ‘dents when left unpicked. In addition there were times growing up when we didn’t have sweet corn and my mother knew the perfect time to pick immature field corn and how much sugar to add to the boiling water for a quite acceptable ‘substitute’. We also ate many tasty ‘pumpkin’ pies made from squash. As a kid I didn’t know until told years later

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Pumpkin pie tastes like the spices you put in it. We’ve made pies from carrots and even potatoes that taste similar.