Yesterday, I walked into a kindergarten class, armed only with a cornstalk, a trifold, and 14 ears of popcorn. When I walked out 90 minutes later, I didn’t even have the cornstalk - the kids had blown me away.

The Food Project has gone for several years to the Lincoln Kindergarten to talk about corn. One kindergartener told me all about pollination, while another explained to me that conservation land was “where you couldn’t build on”. Everyone got to see the difference between sweet corn, flour corn, and popcorn, and then they worked in pairs to shuck popcorn, collecting it to give to Rosie’s Place, a women’s shelter downtown, to have popcorn for the holidays. Giggles flew as popcorn kernels popped off the cobs, kids oohed and ahhed at the different colors of kernels, from red to yellow to blue, and the room exploded with delight at seeing popcorn pop right off the cob in the microwave.

Who knew corn was so exciting? I’m now bringing popcorn to all my friends.