Garden Progress: Harvesting Corn

Our first ever corn crop was a grand success.  I used the Territorial Seed organic fertilizer and also rabbit manure from a local farmer. It grew more than 6 feet tall and taught me the meaning of "rustling in the corn field".  We harvested half the cobs when the stalks turned brown and hung them to dry in the garage. The rest were finally harvested this week since the internet says to harvest it just before the first frost.  We used the stalks as part of our Fall/Party decorating (more on that later).
Here are some pictures of the kiddos shelling the popcorn off the cob and then popping it in our air popper.

The kids quickly got the hang of shelling corn and really enjoyed it. As in, they enjoyed it so much that they did not want to stop until all the ears were shelled. We ended up with about 1.25 quarts of kernels.  The ears and the kernels are so beautiful - deep reds, golden brown, black, and yellow. Husking the corn was fun too because the color was such a wonderful surprise each time.

According to popcorn.org there is an ideal moisture content of 14% and certain size specifications that need to be met for the corn to pop. We put in a big scoop and were sad to see that only about 1/4 of the corn kernels popped fully. I am not sure yet what that means about the moisture content, but we were happy to enjoy the part that did pop and are making plans to try to grind some cornmeal flour with a portion of the remaining kernels. We will try popping again after the kernels have had some time to sit. Maybe I should store them in a woven bag instead of a jar? so that they can continue to dry out?