I love corn season, it usually means more time with friends, BBQ’s and warm summer nights. When you shuck your corn for the next summer evening meal, save the corn silk! You can brew up tea with the fresh corn silk or mince it into small pieces and add it fresh to your salad.
Fresh Corn Silk
Fresh corn silk is a food that contains easy to assimilate nutrients. Use it as a topping for just about any salad type dish; just make sure you cut it into tiny pieces. If you try to eat it in long strings it will be nothing but irritating.
If you go through as much corn as we do, there is no way to eat or drink all the fresh silk, so you can dry it for later use. Pull the silk from the cob and separate if from the husk. Run your fingers through the silk a little to loosen it from being in one big clump.
Place the corn silk on a flat basket and set it out on the counter to dry. Depending on the weather this can take a few days. Once all the water is gone from the silk and it feels slightly crispy you can store it in a jar or paper bag. Corn silk keeps this way for about one year.
Dried corn silk makes a very nice tasting tea that is traditionally employed as an anti-inflammatory tea for the urinary tract. Two cups a day for several weeks helps with cystitis, urethritis and prostatitis. It is tonic to the prostate and urinary tract and is a safe herbal tea for people of all ages, children and the elderly. Corn silk soothes and relaxes the lining of the urinary tract and bladder, relieving irritation and improving urine flow and elimination.
This is a great remedy for people with incontinence and any type of urinary discomfort. If you are prone to urinary tract infections, corn silk is the herb for you. You don’t have to be inflamed to enjoy a cup of corn silk tea though.
Corn silk is a nutritive herb that is high in potassium. Corn silk has a mildly sweet flavor and makes a good tasting, nutritive and refreshing summer tea. So next time you make corn on the cob make some corn silk tea to drink after dinner.
Corn
Silk Tea
– 2 cups water
– 2 tablespoons fresh or dried corn silk
Put water and silk into a pot and bring to a boil with the lid on the pot. As soon as it comes to a boil, turn the heat down to lowest setting and simmer for ten minutes. Turn off the heat and let the silk continue to steep for another half hour. Strain the silk and warm your tea or drink at room temperature
Corn Silk Summer Sun Tea
4 cups water
4 tablespoons chopped fresh corn silk
Put herbs and water in half gallon Mason jar out in the sun for half a day. Bring it in the house, strain the herbs out. Add honey and lemon or lime to taste. Serve chilled or at room temperature.
