Stolen Corn from Ross' Farm August 26, 2006

Ross's Farm Stolen Corn

No two ways about it; when you're 12 years old, there's no way store-bought corn is nearly as tasty as stolen corn. On the south side of Mutant Beach once stood Ross's Farm. Hardly more than 100 or so feet wide, it ran in a strip along the Tuna all the way up to near Onofrio Street. There were lots of different vegetables grown, but the most portable was sweet corn. At that age, it was an inexhaustible supply, it seemed. On the north side of the Beach there was Hobson Place Baseball field and behind the backstop there was wilderness, as the “tracks” were still a dirt road. A little further away was “the Beach” in it's aboriginal beauty. A great place to camp and raise hell it was, for sure. On some summer nights a lot of us kids from the hood would pitch our U.S. Army tent halves on the flats just above the Beach concrete and proceed to do just that.

We knew every house for a half mile that used to keep beer on the back porches so we raided, never taking more than just a few so as to make our bounty undiscovered and good all summer long. When we got a dozen or so bottles we would stash it and then head up to Whitford's Store to get us a few packs of Camels and some of those rotgut Phillies cigars. Carl F. and Dan C. (both of whom have passed) sometimes would get some Mail Pouch just to be really disgusting. Then we would all head down to the Beach, make a bonfire of sorts, and prepare our feast.

Ross's Farm was an easy mark. Nobody was ever around. We would wait until dark and raid the farm for all the sweet corn we could carry (once again not taking too much to be discovered and spoil the summer). We would soak the damned stuff right in the creek right along with the crude slick and roast up a bunch. What a life! Camels, Carling Black Label and Genesee Beer, and all the corn you could eat. I can truly say that stolen corn is better than store-bought, especially at the Beach.

No way did the corn bought with food stamps by the later South Center Street generation even come close. Jay would concur that it was the BEST free corn he ever had, right Jay?

SL

[MBPS NOTE: This kind of story is EXACTLY why we started this website! Thanks SL.]

According to this transmittal on August 27, 2006, Jay from the MB neighborhood also liked Ross' corn:

Cooking Hint of the Week: always remove the feathers before roasting a Robin over an open fire

Indeed the corn was delicious..that is unless it was served with a side order of rock salt traveling over 600 fps.

In the category of gross cuisine at Mutant Beach, Dan C. (I don't think it's the same one you mentioned) and I came across A.C. roasting a Robin on a stick. He hadn't even cleaned the feathers off. Admittedly we didn't stick around to see if he actually ate it.