CHETEK, WI (August 25, 2006) – Anyone who has had the blessing of eating fresh sweet corn \u2013 not the so-called fresh variety found in the chain supermarkets, but the honest-to-goodness, locally grown kind \u2013 knows that Pastor Everett Wilson is making a bold claim when he says the Prairie Lake Covenant Church\u2019s outreach to the community features \u201csome of the best sweet corn that people have ever eaten.\u201d
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\nIf they know Pastor Wilson, they also know he is a stickler for choosing just the right words; he means what he says as the church prepares for its seventh annual free corn feed tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon.<\/p>\n
The men of this rural church begin cooking the corn – still in the husk – over an open fire earlier in the day. Ice cream is stored in freezers. The tables and chairs will be set up under tents on the rural church\u2019s parking lot.<\/p>\n
Friends and new neighbors will gather and tell stories. They\u2019ll dine on the free corn. Most will choose to eat the corn straight from the cob, refusing to heed the words of Charles Day, who writing in 1844 deemed such behavior as \u201cnot elegant.\u201d\u00a0 Rather, he said, “The kernels should be scored with a knife, scraped off onto the plate, and then eaten with a fork. Ladies should be particularly careful how they manage so ticklish a dainty, lest the exhibition rub off a little desirable romance.”<\/p>\n
These neighbors and friends will enjoy the waning of summer that carries its own romance: \u201cWe live in a beautiful area,\u201d Wilson observes.<\/p>\n
Wilson says he isn\u2019t sure how much corn will be roasted, but it will be enough to fill the back of a pickup truck. As many as 100 people are expected to participate in the event.<\/p>\n
Though the town is small, some of the people will greet each other for the first time. \u201cIt\u2019s a myth,\u201d Wilson says, that everyone in the rural community knows one another. Property changes hands frequently, and people often have not met their neighbors.<\/p>\n
The church looks forward to these days. \u201cIt\u2019s a party we\u2019re doing for the neighborhood,\u201d Wilson says. \u201cIt\u2019s probably the most fun thing the church does in the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ice cream makes the party complete, Wilson suggests. \u201cOf course, it\u2019s Wisconsin, so it\u2019s very good,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n
Copyright \u00a9 2011 The Evangelical Covenant Church.<\/p>\n