Corn

This is the time of year that I look forward too and dread both!  The garden is producing very nicely at the moment and will continue to do so for a while yet.  This means that I am and VERY busy!  LOL. 

Last night we did our second picking on the green beans and got about 13 pounds.  If canning those isn't enough to do, my husband came home with some fresh corn.  

I don't grow corn.  It takes up a lot of room in the garden and the yield isn't large enough to warrant giving up that much real estate in the garden for it, so I buy it.  I generally buy a bushel or so off of a farmer who has a little roadside stand west of Indianapolis, he's been out there for years.

The difference in handling the green beans is a personal preference for me.  I don't like to can corn.  I don't like how it tastes.  In my opinion, corn is better frozen.  It's pretty easy to do, too!

In my family, the kids get to shuck the corn.  I remember being little and it being fun to do but then it got to where my twin and I were just waiting on our little brother to get big enough so HE could do it...LOL.  I am happy to say that I have continued that tradition and the kids shuck corn.  Yea, I'm a mean Mom sometimes.

Anyway, once your kids have shucked the corn, the blanch and shock method is a pretty easy process to get it ready to go into the freezer.  You'll need good Ziploc freezer bags, Ice and a pan (with lid) big enough to put corn on the cob in and a clean towel.  I prefer a steamer because I think when you boil veggies in water, most of the good stuff (vitamins and minerals) in them stays in the water.  Even if you just go get a collapsible steamer basket and use your big soup pot, steaming is still better.

You'll need to fill the sink up with cold water and add ice, the process here is that once you've steamed the corn, the ice water stops the cooking process.  I lay out the towel on the kitchen table, I'll explain why in a bit.  The pot, if you're using a steamer, only needs 1" of water in it.  If you're not using the steamer basket, fill the pot with water and bring to a boil.  

Put the corn, whether or not the steamer basket is used, in the pan of boiling water, a few ears at a time.  Put the lid on and let it boil for 3 minutes.  When the time is up, put the corn into the ice water. for 3 minutes.  When that 3 minutes is up, place the corn on the clean towel. 

I  put the corn on the clean towel to dry.  If the corn is really dry when you put it in the freezer, it will have less of a chance to get ice crystals on it and will help for the corn that you put up off the cob.

See how easy it was to blanch and shock the corn?  Now you're ready to prep it for the freezer.

For Corn on the cob, just put a few ears into good Ziploc freezer bags.  Don't over fill the bags.  I like to keep it at 5-6 ears per bag so that the bags will lay flat in the freezer and I can stack them.  Try to get as much air out of the bag as you're sealing it.  Once they're bagged, they can go in the freezer.  

There is no need to thaw the corn on the cob when cooking it.  Just put the corn into a pan of cold water, cover it.  Put it on medium heat until it comes to a boil.  Let it boil for about 5 minutes and you're good to go.

For Corn NOT on the cob, there are all sorts of gadgets and gizmos to remove corn from the cob.  I'm guilty of buying one or two of them.  You know what I use?  A thin paring knife.  You know those little cheapy ones you're given when a store has a "Come to aisle 15 and hear a guy try to sell you the latest Ginzu knife and you'll get a free gift" promo.  Yes, that is what I use.

Once the corn is dry, I use our popcorn bowl and place the stalk end in the bottom of the bowl and use my small paring knife to gently cut the corn off the cob.  It's a pretty quick process and you just move on to the next ear.  You'll need to move the corn to a different bowl so that you aren't trying to cut corn off the cob while it's in 3" of corn kernels.  Once you have all the corn off the cob, just put it in good Ziploc freezer bags.  You do have a choice here, you can put it in one gallon Ziplocs and just remove what you want for each meal but this will require you to be diligent in making sure the bag is sealed well with as much air out of it as possible when you put it back in the freezer.  Or, you can put it in meal size portions in quart-size Ziploc bags.  Again, try not to overfill the bags so that you can make them flat and stack them in the freezer.  **NOTE-once you cut corn off the cob, it will not be dry and you do not want to lay it out to dry.  Once you cut if off the cob, it needs to go into a bag.

If you don't get corn by the bushel, you can do the same thing with corn from the grocery or produce stand if you get a good quality corn in season.  The key here is good quality.  If you put sub-standard produce in the freezer, it will NOT get any better.  Keep that in mind.

Even if you're not up for trying to can anything yet, freezing is pretty easy to do and if done correctly, you'll have a product that comes out of the freezer just as good as the day it went in!