Farm life from a to z and then some

            Making hominy. There are many tasks on the farm that are hard work. There none that I looked forward to more that making hominy. You had to draw tub after tub of water from the well. You had to have a fire outside with a kettle that would hold close to ten gallon of water. You had to shuck a lot of corn and then remove it from the cob. Make sure it was clean and then but it into the pot of boiling water and put lye and ashes into the water with the corn. You then would cook the corn until it would swell up to about four times its usual size. When this happened the outer hard husk on the corn would begin to peel off but not completely. When it had cooked long enough for the husk to be loose you begin with the washing process. All the lye and ashes must be washed from the corn. After the first washing to remove a lot of the lye you begin the next washings and with your hands you rub the corn as it is being washed to remove the hard husk that has been loosened. This is not an easy process but laborious. You continue moving the corn into clean tubs of water until the husks are gone and the lye and ashes are completely removed. Then the corn in put back into a washed out and cleaned kettle and cooked until the corn is done. The process is hard work but the results are a delight. There is nothing like hominy freshly made. That you buy in the store is not even a close second.