I’m always so excited when the sweet corn is ready each summer. I’m ready to shuck it, cut it off the cobs, and freeze it, so our family can enjoy the yummy goodness all year round. I feel the same way about strawberries…until I have washed, stemmed, and cut more than I want to count. I look forward to mowing the grass for the first time each spring…but have a completely different feeling about it a few months later.

Sweet corn is the same. By the time my freezer is full, I don’t want to see another ear of corn. Yet by the time next year rolls around, I’m just as excited to begin the process again.

Shucking the corn has always been my favorite part of the process. Growing up, I remember sitting on the tailgate of pick-up truck. The bed of the truck was filled with ears of corn. Some of us sat on the tailgate and others nearby in lawn chairs, and we pulled off those shucks and silks for hours. My dad taught me how to separate the silks in a way that made shucking much faster. Yet sometimes, the remaining silks seem to hang on for dear life, especially this year, when the ears were usually still damp from all the rain.

We don’t sit on the tailgate anymore. In fact, I haven’t helped put up corn on the farm for years. Usually, I just bring some home to prepare for my freezer, and my parents work on filling their own freezer. This year, however, was different. I got to help my mom and dad. Their set up was a bit different yet the process was the same. We sat just inside the garage, away from direct sun. We had stools made from buckets and crates and the lawn wagon for our leaves and silks. We had an old fan that helped a bit with the heat and even some music–country, of course.

And there we sat and worked–usually, my dad and me. He taught me more about corn. (You’d think after growing up on a farm, I’d know about all there is to know, but there are a lot of basics I just don’t remember.) We talked about travel, health, current events, and just about anything that came up. We just hung out as we pulled apart the corn to get it ready for mom’s job of cutting it off the cob.

It was a sweet time.

Sometimes, you don’t have to be doing much of anything to make sweet memories. I still got tired of shucking corn, but I wouldn’t change those hot, sweaty, itchy, sticky moments.

Sometimes, the routine of life invites an unrivaled sweetness into your life. Savor it.