It was an exciting moment for me at my maize farm last evening when I paid it a visit to monitor the situation of the maize plant. While trying to see what I can do to aid the growth of the plant, I began to crave eating some maize, and since it's already late and I can't buy any at that time, I decided to harvest some from my farm. It's just a wonderful experience. Believe it or not, nothing beats the feeling of planting and harvesting the fruit of your labor, and today I'll be sharing my experience with you.
I was at the farm with the purpose of clearing the surroundings of the maize plant, which began pretty well, although my hands haven't recovered from the pain and stress I put myself through during my weekend thorough cleaning exercise of expanding my farm as well as keeping my surroundings clean and tidy for personal safety.
So with the pains in my hands, coupled with how close the maize stems are to each other, I decided to not use any tool but instead uproot the grasses within the farm with my hands, and that was what I was doing around the farm when the craving to eat maize began to develop within me. Luckily for me, my maize plan is already nearing the harvest stage, and even though only a few are ready for harvest, I decided to take those few to quench my craving.
I called the son of my neighbor, who always followed me to the farm, to help me carry a bowl that I could harvest the maize into, and once he came back, I started checking through the maize plant to decipher which was good enough for harvest, and then I passed it to him to remove the husk. That's the green leaf that covers the maize plant, and it was going smoothly for a few minutes until I realized he wasn't putting all the removed husk on the floor, so I asked him to go bring another bowl where the husk would be put in so it wouldn't litter the farm surroundings.
Also, I thought within myself that it wouldn't be nice if I harvested for myself alone, so I harvested more to give the boy, who's always actively helping me when I'm at the farm, to give to his parents, and they can enjoy the harvest as well. It was great, and I was literally excited to see that my hard work on the Maize farm paid off, although I only harvested a small portion of the farm, but the feeling was mind-blowing.
I went on to gather all of my own part of the harvest and cook some by boiling in hot water while I left the others to be cooked alongside maize later this week. The one I boiled was sweet, and I did enjoy it as it satisfied my craving at zero fee because I am self-sufficient and planted what I eat mostly.
All photos used in this post are mine.