Yippee! My favorite snack is honored today! Did you grow up with cookies, cakes, and sodas as snacks? Not us but don't feel sorry for us...we had popcorn! A couple of times every week! Buttered and salted. Usually orange juice or water was the only drink allowed with it. None of us were overweight, plenty of fiber I guess. During my first soujourn over seas I only missed two things - popcorn and peanut butter, in that order. My next soujourn I took them with me!
All of our popcorn was made in an Atom Pop popcorn popper. It's unique design, an inverted funnel, allowed you to put the oil and corn in the popper, place on the burner and just relax. The seeds slide down the sides and back to the oil and heat. No shaking. No burning. No hovering. No old maids, unless you put too many kernels in the popper or have really old bad corn.. It came with it's own little measuring cup, in that same funnel shape.
A few years ago I began to feel guilty for being the child who loved her buttered popcorn so much that she took advantage of her parents brief swearing off of popcorn and adopted the popper for herself. So in between batches of fluffy buttered popcorn, I did what any responsible sibling would do. I took a rubbing off of the bottom of the 50-60 year old pan and searched the web for more poppers. I was delighted to find some brothers in Kansas still manufacturing these wonders of the snack world.
After speaking with one of the brothers, he directed me to a hardware store in a nearby town that was selling the poppers. A delightful older lady took my order and sent my 16 poppers post haste. I then shipped them to my siblings, children, nieces and nephews for Christmas gifts. I wanted everyone to enjoy a bit of family history. And now I don't feel so guilty. If you too would like to enjoy the ease and perfection of a 50's popper you can now buy these poppers directly from the manufacturers at http://www.atompoppopper.com/
In the 70's I had a friend who rented a farm house where popcorn and sweet corn were grown in alternating years. The farmer welcomed us to pick whatever we could eat. We would sit around a potbelly stove in the Fall (really I'm not 100 years old) and shuck those kernels off with our thumbs to store for the next year. Remember we only had that free popcorn come around every other year so we were like squirrels storing our nuts for the winter! But my thumbs hurt so bad that I don't miss that shucking.
If you think popcorn sounds good may I recommend the best place to buy your corn is from http://www.amishcountrypopcorn.com/ Sorry Orville and Paul but they've got you both beat. They do have the hulless variety so you don't have to pull hulls out of your gums. Our family favorites are the Baby White and Lady Finger hulless. They have an amazing number of other varieties so take some time to look around.
Now I really must run and put the corn on and celebrate National Popcorn Day!
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