KERNELS OF KNOWLEDGE INTRODUCTION
"THE CYCLE OF CORN"
There's a farm in southern Minnesota with a long driveway, just like many other farms in every other state across America. There are lots of long driveways in the country — but this one is special. Its path winds from the house to the bus stop and every school day for nearly 100 years Evans children have followed this exact same road.
Elizabeth, Claire and David walk it now. They're fourth generation Evans. Their mother Ann made the same trip from the day she started kindergarten until the day she got her drivers license. Their grandfather Hugh walked that way too. He remembers the day in 1931 when his sister was so late that she ran to the bus in her petticoat.
On both sides of the driveway are cornfields. Hugh helped his dad Robert carve those fields from the prairie, with the help of two mules named Peter and Polly. A generation later Ann helped her dad Hugh plant those same fields with hybrid seed and a small tractor. Today, Elizabeth, Claire and David help too — but mostly they watch the fields be planted by huge tractors and harvested by combines with computers and satellites.
Many things have changed on this farm throughout the years.
Three generations ago, Robert made his living from 80 acres of land, nine cows, 300 chickens, two horses — and of course Peter and Polly. He husked corn by hand and on a good day he could harvest 1 1/2 acres. Robert fed all the corn he could raise to his livestock.
Two generations ago, Hugh made his living from this and two other farms he bought and hundreds of pigs. He picked corn behind his tractor with a wagon to catch the ears and could harvest 12 acres a day. Hugh fed most of his corn to his pigs, but some left over to sell to neighbors.
Today, Ann and her husband can't afford to buy more land, livestock or machinery. So they not only farm, but they also help teach other farmers how do a better job. She sells her corn to livestock farmers, to make fuel for cars and to other countries around the world. Ann hires someone with a $200,000 combine that easily harvests 100 acres a day.
Some days Ann misses the past — the way her grandfather Robert and father Hugh farmed. She remembers it was perfect and wishes it could be that way again.
Her dad always reminds her it wasn't that perfect.
Ann understands that farmers are small businesspeople, like the storeowners in town. Their farms are their businesses, and they need to make investments, manage expenses, and please customers just the same. She is teaching her own children — Elizabeth, Claire, and David — as much as she can about the business of farming. But she is also teaching them how farming is different from other businesses. She learned it from her dad. He learned it from his.
Farming is a partnership with nature. It is a life built around natural cycles. The people who live that life are grateful to be part of it. The fourth generation of Evans kids now live on this little farm in southern Minnesota with the magic, winding, corn-skirted lane. Many things have changed - but the cycles of life are still the same.
Elizabeth, Claire and David see it and feel it, every day as they walk to the bus.
Seed is planted in the spring, then tiny shoots of corn begin to poke through the soil. Soon, individual plants fall into lines, faint green stripes coloring the fields. Every day the plants grow. By the last week of school the field is a mass of green leaves waving in the wind.
The corn grows all summer, taller every day until it's topped with a tassel. Then the ears form and start to fill with yellow kernels.
When school starts again in the fall, the driveway is a tunnel between the cornfields. Only the very top of the school bus is visible over the tall plants so Elizabeth, Claire, and David never see it until it's right there.
In the fall, as they walk home from the bus, they notice the colors of the field turning more golden and brown. The plants ripen, mature, and dry. Then harvest begins. For a few days the fields are filled with dust from the combine, and wagonloads of corn line the driveway.
Elizabeth, Claire, and David live in a world defined by this cycle.
They see the planning and preparation, the planting, the cultivation, and the harvest. They know that one must come before the other, that there's an order to life.
They understand connections. Corn from their fields is used to feed animals and people around the world. Their corn is also a source of energy; a source that can be renewed and recycled. They know humility. Their crop depends on rain and sunshine. They have no power over storms. They know hope. Every year they watch small kernels become strong plants.
That driveway is special. It is a path through history; a path where generations of children have learned about life.
The following nine stories are true. They cross four generations, and are being shared as a way of giving insight into this crop that is so important to the Evans family. The first five stories describe the production of corn. The last four give insights into its uses.
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