A Very Corny Post
Reminder that I am still away on vacation and will get to your comments when I return a week from now.
One of the first tasks upon our return from vacation one was to get caught up on sweetcorn which was mostly ready for picking. For some reason, this year we have had a lot of ant damage where they have desiccated the ends of nearly every ear of corn. Fortunately, it has been such a good year for sweet corn that I just cut off the damaged ends and still have long ears of sweetcorn remaining. However, instead of husking it inside on a piece of plastic where it is comfortable, I had to husk it all on our front porch. Fortunately that particular day there was a slight breeze so it felt more like being in a convection oven instead of a regular oven.
With everything husked and de-anted, I set up my workstation inside and got to work preserving it. I just parboil the sweetcorn for three minutes in my large basket lined pot and then dump into into a sink full of cold water to stop the cooking process. Once it has cooled, I use a mandolin set onto a cookie sheet to remove the corn quickly from the cobs. The cobs go into the buckets to be taken out to the compost pile and the corn gets scraped from the cookie sheet into the big stainless bowls. From there, my kids put it into freezer bags using measuring cups and into the freezer it goes for a later date.
I've heard that freezing the corn in it's husk and then defrost it and microwaving it is an acceptable preservation process and I was planning on trying to do some this year but with all the ants in the husks, I decided it probably wouldn't be a good idea. I'm sure the freezing process would kill the ants but who wants to pick off ants before eating your nuked corn on the cob? Maybe next year. There is still some corn out there which I hope to maybe pick tomorrow as I write this and preserve a few bags of corn on the cob, though dehusked and desilked, to add to our shrimp boils that we do from time to time.
We’ve had a couple of cobs recently. One pair was better than the other. It’s early yet around here.
ReplyDeleteWe had an early spring this year so our sweetcorn got planted in good time which helped. We normally do several plantings but this year put it all in at once.
DeleteNice kitchen! I found that freezing corn on the cob made the cobs soggy. A shrimp boil sounds really good:)
ReplyDeleteI was able to freeze a few small cobs from a picking right before we left on vacation, most likely destined for future shrimp boils. I'll have to check out the cobs and how soggy they are.
DeleteI love sweet corn and my state grows a lot of it! I need to look around for some. Ants? That's a big NO.
ReplyDeleteHaving ant issues is a first for us. Not really sure why that is.
DeleteI now have red wiggler worms and could use some of your discards. Congrats on a great harvest!
ReplyDeleteWe normally get corn boring worms in our later plantings of sweetcorn which is partly why I planted everything early this year to avoid them. Unfortunately the ants did as much or more damage than the corn bore worms.
DeleteSomeone offered to pick us up a load of "Mennonite" corn this year, but when I said I wasn't up dealing with that amount I was told you could do just that... freeze it husk and all. I passed on the offer, but probably should have gotten it. I've discovered how easy it is to cook in the microwave in the husk. It is quick and turns out perfectly every time.
ReplyDeleteMy mom used to rent a desilker from the local Mennonites that made quick work of the hardest part about putting up sweetcorn.
DeleteI don't grow corn, but enjoy sweet corn fresh this time of the year. My mother and grandmother used to freeze corn on the cob but also cut it off the cob and can.
ReplyDeleteI try to convince my wife not to plant sweetcorn every year since local grown is available every year and cheap too but every year I get vetoed. I don't mind growing it but it definitely is labor intensive for what I can purchase with no taste difference.
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