Corn’s Up
slang: korns uhp
There are ways to understand time beyond a clock or calendar. Though the skinny-jeaned, ramen-slurping, vinyl-loving, bicycle-crazed residents of the Twin Cities sometimes forget, Minnesota is an agricultural state. And the fields keep their own record. The long, icy nothing of winter dominates the Upper Midwest, and because of that, we appreciate the turning of the seasons so much more. In late spring, when the rain lets up and mud dries, farmers plant and wait for the first signs of green in the cake-black furrows. “Corn’s up” can be an announcement or a question, but it’s always hopeful. It implies the promise of bounty and the true beginning of summer.
