Corn Crack

“I would never do crack.  I would never do a drug named after a part of my own arse, okay? ~ Denis Leary

The last six years of my life has been spent in a bit of a sleep deprived haze.  Thanks kids!  The boffins reckon being overtired leaves you in a mental state similar to being stoned or drunk.  (Post-delivery, sleep-deprivation induced carb and chocolate munchies is probably the real reason why it’s so hard to shed the baby weight.)

Sleep deprivation is also considered a form of torture, and thus rightly prohibited by the Geneva Convention. If you ask most new parents if they would like a good shag or a good sleep, most would choose a solid 12 hour sleep (followed by a good shag…)

I even have a fellow mother-friend who occasionally escapes for weekends interstate, just for a bit of sleep and peace and quiet.  Next time she goes, I’m going too.

So now you understand why my Saturday morning sleep-in is considered sacred.  Essential.  I don’t react well if woken before 8:00am.  Even after then, its best to approach me quietly with a freshly brewed latte in hand.

Getting me up early on a Saturday?  It had better be pretty special.  Like, labour.  Or, first contact with aliens.

But last Saturday, I had a very worthy reason.

You may have seen the images of the Glass Gem Corn that have gone viral in the last month.  If not, here it is.  I think it is the veggie patch equivalent of finding a real, live unicorn.

Glass Gem Corn, image via Seed Trust

I am hereby calling it Corn Crack, because everyone who I show it to wants it.

WANTS IT NOW!

You have to admit.  It’s beautiful stuff.   Even better, unlike most corn we grow, it is an Heirloom variety.  It’s seeds can be saved.  Usually, this is the kind of produce I lust after from afar.  W.A. has some pretty stringent quarantine laws and corn can be hard to source.  But by the miracle of cyberspace, I found a local supplier, Bee from Merribee Organic Farm in Nannup.  And she was going to be at the Manning Farmers Market on Saturday morning.*

So I got myself and the kids all organised.  Our clothes were laid out the night before.   Bags were packed, the car ready to go.  I even woke an hour early at 5:00am to ask Husband if he had remembered the alarm, I was so excited and paranoid of oversleeping.  We arrived just as the Market opened at 8:00am and Bee and Stuart’s stall was our very first stop.

Thanks to me and my big mouth, I had to buy all the Corn Crack seeds Bee had to meet the demand and distribute to my mates.  Even so, I will still fall short.

I felt like a drug dealer.  “You got any more?  When’s the next batch ready?”

Any other Saturday I would have otherwise been asleep.  But last Saturday, I was instead in the rain, with the kids, thoroughly enjoying ourselves, cuddling stray kittens, making new friends and feeling ridiculously thrilled for the chance to grow something so tasty and beautiful.  We will have to wait until September to plant them, but it’s great to have the kids so enthused to get in the garden.

It was completely worth it.

Don’t you agree?

* I should mention I am having an amazing week.  It has literally been a week of unearthed treasures.  I found an old library index card set of drawers, set for a new life as my seed storage catalog. I got a bargain on a beautiful used dining suite. My friend Steph gifted me the most awesome leather vanity case, matching a much loved satchel my Nanna owned, having found it at our local Good Sammys (thanks again Steph!).  I found an established Cape Gooseberry plant after twice failing to grow the stuff from seed.  I was reunited with the Mystery Mushroom Man from Putting the “Fun” into Fungus (…again, I forgot to ask him his name!) and picked up another Oyster Mushroom Kit.  AND, I met Bee and Stuart! Usually, such wonderful luck leaves me wondering when I am about to be hit by a bus, but instead I am happy to take it at face value and look forward to what this next week brings me.