Puttin' Up Corn

 

Dad hasn’t planted corn in his garden for the past few years. Prior to that, he had always planted a few rows. Mom and Dad would enjoy a few ears of boiled corn on the cob or a skillet or two of fried corn before it really reached the perfect stage to harvest.

When he was still growing corn, I would ask Dad when the corn would be ready so that I could go and help them. Dad might say, “not yet, maybe another day or two” and we would wait.

Finally, I would get the call telling me that “tomorrow the corn will be perfect to pick” and I would know what I would be doing the next day!

Unfortunately, it seems that raccoons and squirrels are also great at knowing the moment of perfection for a good ear of corn. When I would arrive at Mom and Dad’s house the next morning, there would only be a small pile of corn picked. I would say, “Let’s go get the rest” and dad would tell me that that was all of it.

It seems that coons and squirrels have no sense of ownership and it is first come, first serve! Also, unfortunately, those coons work the nightshift right before the dayshift on the perfect corn-picking day. The squirrels must have an earlier shift to us dayshift pickers too. It seems that those coons and squirrels had pretty much destroyed Dad’s corn crop those last few years he had planted it. It looked like a bunch of frat-boy partiers had knocked back corn instead of drinks and they barely left any for us!

So, rather than growing corn for the raccoons and squirrels, Dad and Mom have bought corn the last few years to put up. This year, Kroger had some really pretty and tasty corn for five for a dollar. That is a great price for folks like us who love corn, but think about that from a farmer’s perspective. He likely isn’t even breaking even when their corn reaches the consumer at the price of five for a dollar!

Well, anyway, Dad bought two boxes of 48 ears of corn from Kroger and I went over to help work it and put it up. This is a record of how we did it.

First we had to shuck the corn, trying to pull away most of the silks along with the shucks.

Next, we took a little vegetable brush and lightly brushed down the ear, trying to remove the remaining silks. A few stubborn silks will usually make their way into the corn. I told Mom that corn can get stuck in your teeth and the silk will just give a person something to floss with!

After the corn is silked, we rinse it and let it drain.

Next, we cut the kernels off of the cob into Mom and Dad’s large pressure cooker. We aren’t pressure cooking it, but we need a large pan with a thick bottom and the pressure cooker fits the bill. We like creamy corn so we will slice off the outer half of the kernels. After we have sliced off all of the kernels, we will go back around the cob, using the edge of the knife to scrape out the remaining pulp of the corn.

We keep doing this until all of the corn is done. The first batch was 48 ears. We made the remaining 48 ears in a second batch.

After slicing and scraping 48 ears, Mom added about 1/3-1/2 a gallon of water to the corn. She put it on the burner and heated it until the liquid boiled. When it starts to boil, you turn the heat down until it is just simmering. We cooked it about 25-30 minutes. You have to keep an eye on it and you need to stir pretty often. It is easy to scorch corn if you aren’t careful.

After it cooked for a while, the liquid will begin to look different, when it goes from a thin, opaque, milky-looking liquid to a more translucent, and slightly thicker liquid, it is ready to take it off.

We put ice in the kitchen sink and put water to come up to the level of the corn in the pot. Sit the pot of hot corn down into the ice-water filled sink and leave it there until it is nearly cool. Stirring the pot fairly often will help the corn to cool more quickly.

After the corn has cooled, we dip it into zip freezer bags.

We zipped the bag, removing as much air from the bag as possible.

Write the date on the bags and place the bags in the freezer.

Dad takes the shucks and the cobs down to his garden so they can compost there, breaking down and making more soil over time.

From 96 ears of corn, we ended up with fourteen quarts of corn to freeze. We all love Mom’s fried corn and usually, when we have family get-togethers, we all ask Mom to bring the corn and the green beans!

Come winter, when you are wanting some fried corn, you can take a bag out, thaw it, add a bit of water, butter and salt, and cook it until it is thoroughly heated and has thickened a bit. I can’t tell the difference between Mom and Dad’s frozen corn and corn right out of the garden…or off Kroger’s shelf!