Milo

Most crops are either gone or are ugly by the time fall comes. Wheat already has been harvested by July. Combines are mowing down corn and sunflowers. Sunflowers are the most beautiful crop when they are flowering, but they are the ugliest when they are ready to harvest. No field looks worse than a field of drying sunflowers. The stalks and heads are shriveled and brown, a very depressing sight — except to the one who is about to reap his harvest. Corn is not impressive in the fall, either, although shocks of corn make wonderful fall decorations. I love to look at corn when it’s green, stalks and tassels waving in the wind, but dead stalks aren’t the same. Fall corn looks best after it’s harvested. The money is out of the field and into the elevator.

Milo, however, is at its most beautiful just before it’s harvested. The seed heads range in color from purple to every shade of brown and tan. Several years ago, a friend gave me a bunch of corn and milo stalks for an outdoor fall bouquet. It was beautiful. The squirrels thought so, too. My bouquet didn’t last very long under the squirrels’ admiring attention.

Apparently, milo is not a good bird feed ingredient since squirrels love it so. But I don’t mind feeding squirrels. I think they are funny and enjoy watching them. Anything that makes me laugh is worth attracting.