People ate corn fresh when it ripened in summertime, by roasting or boiling the ears, or by making popcorn, but mostly they dried the kernels and crushed them into cornmeal, and then used the cornmeal to make tacos or tortillas. They filled the tacos with bean mush and vegetables. That way you could store the corn and eat it all year round. Some people also stirred cornmeal into boiling water to make pudding (kind of like oatmeal).