Everyone was husking corn.
"I got a flint corn!"exclaimed Ceres.
She held up an ear corn with different colored kernels.
"Does that mean you get colorful popcorn?"asked Small Lady.
Small Lady and her parents had been on a progress by her grandmother, the Empress Serenity of the Moon Usually Ceres only viewed Small Lady. The progress Small Lady was making included a stop at the court of Ceres. One of the things Ceres had arranged in her honor, was to have a Corn Festival. Several ears of corn had been brought, and the girls were husking them. The ears were of different varieties, and one didn't know what type they got until they finished husking it.
"If you look carefully at the kernel when it pops. The popcorn itself isn't."Ceres told her. "You can color the popcorn afterwards. You get colorful cornmeal from it, though. Blue cornmeal from blue corn."
"Hmm."Small Lady looked a little down.
She got a piece of paper and her coloring pencils, while turning Ceres's ear of corn, examining its colors.
"They don't really have patterns, Highness."Ceres told her. "Just random kernels in different colors. Unless they're purple. Then it's all purple."
Small Lady, who loved to color or paint, began to draw a picture of it with its colors.
"Not different colored popcorn, but is it good for popcorn?"asked Ceres's tutor.
Ceres frowned. Only trust her tutors to turn something fun into a lesson. When she finished husking an ear of corn, she was supposed to write down what type it was, and what particular things it was good and not good for. She suspected she might have to identify the kernels, as well.
"Decoration, hominy."she wrinkled her nose. Hominy was not a favorite of hers. She brightened, however. "Cornmeal? Blue cornmeal?"
"That's not flint, exactly. That's blue corn."her tutor said.
Ceres picked up another ear to husk, and nodded. Usually she was excellent at these lessons, but she might get bad marks on this right now.
"We get to make Christmas trees for my dollhouses from pinecones."she turned to Small Lady, ignoring her tutor.
She knew Small Lady liked art, so throughout her visit, they would be doing mostly arts and crafts. After they finished husking the corn, they would then be making different things with it. Using several other nuts and grains, as well.
She had chosen a few of her tutors and older girls at court, including Malwina and Fayruza to be the Corn Committee. They would be judging the projects the girls had made with the corn. Some made corn jewelry with the corn and other nuts, others glued corn and other nuts to paper, creating pictures, or glued them together, creating little sculptures, or pieces. The Corn Committee would be voting who they thought made the most creative pieces.
And at the end of the afternoon, they would be crowning the Corn Queen. Ceres had made what was a tiara made up of corn kernels, popcorn, acorns, pecans, as well as a rod with an ear of corn at the end, a ring with a piece of popcorn, and a popcorn necklace. She would be the one crowning the Corn Queen in a crowning ceremony.