I usually just compost them. If your compost pile needs an infusion of nitrogen, I'd put them on it. I feel kind of iffy about using them as mulch because it might attract grasshoppers and other pests that find corn tasty. If you don't have a lot of insects, I suppose they'd work ok as mulch, but I haven't tried it. I have so much trouble with grasshoppers eating corn plants that I bury corn refuse inside the compost pile where they cannot find it...unless they take up digging.

You know, you could make corn husk jelly from those husks.

Alright, I was just making up that last part.

Dawn

Oh no Dawn, you are just asking for it. Now she will blame you because you never told her that before. LOL Actually I saw a post over on the Harvest forum where they talked about corn cob jelly. They said it tasted like sweet jelled water.

Carol, I was thinking of corn cob jelly when I said corn husk jelly. I bet it would taste the same, and yes I was remembering the pinkeye purplehull pea hull jelly conversation Paula and I had a couple of years ago. And all the ones since then too. I think that with commercial pectin, a person could can anything and get it to gel, including water.

I neglected to suggest you can use the husks to make tamales, or anything that needs to be wrapped in parchment paper for cooking. Or, you can dry them and make corn husk dolls or corn husk wreaths. Some herbalists use corn husks for medicinal purposes, but I don't remember which ones.

You also can pickle pig's feet but I wasn't about to suggest that here. I expect it would require the use of a pressure canner since it is a meat. During the Dust Bowl days they even canned food we think of as weeds because subsistence farmers didn't have much else of a crop to can. I believe they canned thistles, among other stuff. I'd have to look it up in "The Worst Hard Time".

Our grandmothers and great-grandmothers probably could have listed a bunch of uses for corn husks. Folks didn't waste anything back then.

Dawn

LOL!!! I had ALREADY dug up a recipe for corn cobb jelly! I've learned to be on my toes with you guys! Some say it taste like honey, others say it taste like corn syrup. One batch and I can decides from there.

I did consider drying the husks to use in making tamales...but who am I kiddin'? Like I'm gonna have time for THAT!

Glad to know I wasn't too off base about using them for mulch. Into the compost pile they go....well, under a few inches.

Thanks for the feed-back! Sorry I've been so quiet but life, it sometimes gets just a bit too crazy. Thank GOD for my gardening...or there might be too many fresh piles of dirt. heh....just kiddin'....sorta. LOL!

Paula, Thy shall not kill.....however I did like Larry's idea of rounding them up and dumping them across town. LOL

Paula,
I chapped the corn stock including the husk with large shear and used it for mulching. I used same technique for other early harvested stuff. Our small compost pit (4x6) will not hold all the plant materials. Last year stuff is still siting. I have decided to chap all plant residue after final harvest and mulch it. -Chandra