Corn shelling contest promotes team work and accuracy

[September 19, 2023]  You needed to have a pair of tough hands-on Sunday at the Postville Courthouse if you wanted to participate in the National Railsplitting Festival Corn Shelling Contest. This contest was all about teamwork, and it did not disappoint.

The goal is to fill up an empty metal coffee can, as fast as you can with dried corn kernels, by removing the kernels from the cob. The catch is that you must work with a partner, only one person from the two-person team can attempt to shell the cob into the can at a time, one cannot pick up any corn kernels that fall to the ground and contestants must have their hands completely off the can, corn cob or one another ear of corn while your partner is attempting to get all the kernels of his or her cob and into the metal can! This was a fun way to watch the young and the old scramble and work as a team.

There were two divisions, a junior division, and an adult division. In the junior division, there were six sets of two and in the adult division, there were four sets of two participants. For the junior division, the top three teams that filled the bucket with corn kernels received certificates. For the adult division, the first team that filled the bucket with corn kernels received a certificate and all the participants received a homemade wooden spoon from the ‘Spoon Man’ vendor set up across the lawn at the Postville Courthouse.

Junior Corn Shelling Winners
 

Adult Corn Shelling Winners

[JA Hodgdon]