Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Impressions from China - Corn, anyone?


In the past month or so, this has become a familiar site. The end of summer marks corn harvest time, & I have to say the Chinese are resourceful in using what is available to them.

Our neighborhood is built amidst villages. A lot of the land has been taken over by sprawling expat compounds. Previously mostly farmland, there are still large areas where various crops are grown, depending on the season.

When the corn was ready for harvest, all those ears were stacked on the neighborhood streets, for lack of available space, in hundreds of piles, exposed to the elements, road gravel, passing vehicle exhaust & the occasional wandering stray dog or animal (I shudder to think what else these dogs may have done besides sniff at these piles of corn!). After a week or two of drying, the villagers put these ears of corn through machines which de-kernelize(is there such a word?) the corn, after which the kernels of corn are again left on the roadside to air before subsequently being ground into cornmeal.

I really, really wonder if there is further cleansing or sterilizing of the end product before it is sold as a consumable product. Maybe it's meant for the pigs?

Who knows? This is China.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

now you'll know the reason if your bread seems more 'crunchy' than usual