Monday, September 1, 2008

Freezer corn and ample apologies!!!

Hello there corn fans!!! My HUGE apologies for not getting this up sooner. Like I said before, the farm has taken over - I repeat the farm has taken over - put on your crap kickers and be prepared to work HARD and FAST all day long!! Anyway - here is the corn procedure. When we 'do' corn, it is simple and yet its great! I really dont have a 'recipe', most of the cooking I do is *gulp* the dump and pour method - let me explain - I dump or pour stuff into whatever I am making and taste it after each D or P for flavor - I rarely if ever measure - except for baking!

Freezer corn -

First step - you need a big gunny bag full of FRESH corn that is NOT overripe. Ladys, if you are going to go through the labor of giving birth to great freezer corn, it MUST BE FRESH. When I say fresh, I mean find someone with a corn patch and if they are willing to pick it for you, have them do it the morning you intend to freeze it. Better yet, if they will allow you to pick yourself great, cuz then you can leave the over ripe or 'compromised' (full of worms) corn right in the feild. In my personal opinion NEVER NEVER NEVER buy it from the grocery store. Once you have had fresh sweet corn picked the same morning its Heaven on a cob....
When you get your corn only husk a kettle full at a time because after you husk it, it will start to pull the sweetness into the cob and get dry. No I am not kidding.
Here are some pictures to help with the rest of the process - hang onto your corn knives, cuz its gonna be a longer post.... sorry....
This is my mother in law, she is 72 and an anchor for me for so many things. She alone has taught me more about cooking with the dump and pour method than anyone else - Thank you Granny Farmer.





When you have procurred your corn and have it husked you start by boiling it until its just about cooked. I never dump the corn out to drain, I use a tongs to retrive my corn and put it in a container to be transported the sink. I fill one of the sides to my sink filled with VERY cold water to cool the corn. The faster the corn is cooled the faster you can cut it off of the cob. I keep the water in my kettle for my next batch and add to the water if I need to. This way you dont use so much energy reheating water - its Earth friendly.



While your corn is cooling, I put on the second kettle to be ready and fill up the other side of the sink. When the corn has cooled from the first side - it takes a bit but you can tell that it has cooled the cob - say 10 min for those of you who have to have a time line... I used to be that way too - timelines, measurements, presicion.... now its by the seat of my pants baby and thats only if I am wearing pants!!! Sorry, I was day dreaming of the Milk Man... When the corn has cooled it needs to be cut away from the cob. I hope the pictures that follow will help with my explanation.
The cooled corn:

You must cut the corn from small end to big end and towards you - you cant cut it like your peeling a carrot, just wont work.

This is what your cob looks like after you have cut it mostly off. See the milk in the cob yet? That needs to come out too - there is the sweetness baby!!!


Next you need to take the back of your knife and run it down the cob so the 'milk' comes out..

When your done with all this, I just put it into plastic freezer bags and freeze it. I dont put sugar, salt or butter in it at this point. I do that when I heat it up for supper. This way you only take 5 minutes instead of hours while trying to freeze it....




So thats it for my 'recipe' for freezer corn. When I heat it up to eat at a meal, I taste it first to see if it needs sugar or not. At times if the corn was not sweet that year, I add a bit of sugar, salt, butter and a tad of cream... like a 1/2 tsp..

If you have questions, just post them in the comments and I will do all that i can to explain.
The whole time I was doing this there was an air guitar contest going on in the living room... Please dont mind the mess... Lispy was trying to help by vacuming and the baby has taken over the living room, because I have no nursery for him! He sleeps in his crib in our room...




For you who love baby feet - here ya go..



23 comments:

Unknown said...

I love baby feet, thanks for sharing. How long do you boil your corn? Or do you just par-boil it? And is Granny Farmer for rent? I could use her around here :)

Heidi said...

I boil it till its almost done, because the cob is so hot that it will continue to cook even in the cool water.... I boil it till its about 1 minute away from done. Some boil till done, but I have found if I do that its mushy when you heat it for a meal. Granny Farmer is to valuable to rent out!! LOL

jan said...

I loved the post, even though the odds of getting fresh picked corn in the mohave desert are slim! I dream of living in the mid-west again and having corn and tomatoes all summer long until I am sick of them! If that is a "mess" in your living room, you have very high standards! I notice you have a treadle machine. Do you use it to sew, or just for "show"?

Suzanne said...

Thanks so much. Now I'm on the hunt for fresh corn. Oh.......I'm going to need a chest freezer also. Thanks, now I've got to spend money. Oh well, it's what I do best according to the Farmer.

- Suzanne, the Farmer's Wife

Heidi said...

Jan - I sew and that machine is my great grandmothers... I used it for a long time until my mother gave me her moms 'new' machine - its a Ricar from the 60's!!! LOL I only sew simple things like baby blankets, patch the kids jeans for hand me downs or the mens jeans to get a little more wear out of them. I 'take' stuff in or 'let' stuff out so things fit according to who needs to wear it!! LOL.. :) Our tomatos this year are not so good.... I LOVE tomato sandwichs..

Updated by Lila Huggins (grandmother) said...

Happy Labor Day Heidi,
I enjoy your blog very much. I found you via CDW and found her thru Pioneer Woman. I'm kinda new to this blog thing but I love it.. My daughter (grown up) wants me to start my own blog and I keep saying, "why would folks want to listen to my ramblings? I'm not interesting or funny or witty or have a farm like all these other folks I read everyday. She says, "Mom, you did after all own and run a Tea Room for many years and you LOVE kids and teaching kids, so write about that." I think she almost has me talked into it. What do you think?
I think I spend all my free time reading other folks blog to have time to write my own.
Woman, I wish I had your energy, to take care of all your kids and farm at the same time. My hats off to you sweety. Keep up the good work! PS I have "put up" corn exactly like you did several times in my life. Nothing like the taste!
Miss Lila in Atlanta

Heidi said...

Thank you Miss Lila - I would LOVE to hear about your Tea Room... I am from the midwest so explain to me a tea room would you?!?!? We can ALL use pointers on raising kids! For us, we let the boys try to learn on thier own. When they make mistakes, we point them out and they do get disaplined but SO many times, they figure it out on thier own. :)

Karen Deborah said...

Lawdy that looks good! Papa's mom used to do that too, she made fresh creamed corn that I could just die over. Farmim is work but what a great life! Thanks for the tootsies.

Gizmo said...

I have enjoyed your blog since I found it. I've added you to my Bloglines, and linked in my Blog Roll.

I'm addicted to baby feet (isn't everyone?), and have had a great time commisserating (sp?), but on a MUCH SMALLER scale.

I used to put up corn exactly like you, but now I don't even bother cutting it off the cob. It takes up more space, but I got a new chest freezer out of the deal. :) Probably next year I'll try the kernel only again. :)
My step-mom wanted to save time and froze hers without blanching it....I'm not sure it'll still be good.

goatgirl said...

I'm going to do this. The corn looks great. Very cute seeing your boys be boys and ahhhh...what can I say about thoses baby feet. Love them.

Carla said...

freezer corn-check
wonderful MIL-check
air guitar-check
good looking kids-check
baby feet-check
Yep! Something for EVERYONE!!

Heide said...

Thank you. Unfortunately this year I didn't grow corn and the local corn has just been terrible. Next year I'm planting a big ol' patch in my back yard. Hugs to you and all of your boys.

Train Wreck said...

Yum! that looks so good!! We were out of town during our "sweet corn festivl" So I will have to go hunt for some corn! I love corn! And peas fresh of the vine!! Next year I want a garden! I also love baby feet but WILL NOT have one of those next year! LOL! You are working so hard and fast, you better watch out your farm will turn to Icecream!

Anonymous said...

I do my corn exactly the same way--except (there's always an except) I stand the ear up in the pan and cut down so they fall in better for me--AND I use my turkey fryer (BIG outdoor kettle) to blanch the ears outside-then they come into the cool kitchen to go into the sink.

Those baby toes look yummier than the corn!

Heidi said...

Dandelion mom! I usually do my corn outside on my Propane burner in my canner, but for prosterity sake I did it inside. I usually use 5 gallon pails for cold water and the water hose to fill them up! :) this was a small scale production - usually Granny Farmer and I do our corn together - we do about 5 gunny bags full!!!

Anonymous said...

Heidi-I'll have to remember the buckets next year! That would save the little drippy trail from the door to the sink. We did a pick-up bed full--77 quarts in the freezer, a roaster full for a potluck and 3 big 2 gal bags left on the cob for cooking and eating fresh--VERY satisfying! My fav part is those big pieces that come off the cob all stuck together? We all snitch those all day long.

Mrs. Mom said...

ooooo yummmm...

The sight of your freezer corn has me drooling about as much as you do over my Baby Brother! ;) Can I come to your house for dinner??

Love the boys Heidi!!! THey have such beautiful smiles!!!

Kiss Milk Dud from his Auntie Mrs Mom, and tell him to feel btter SOON!!

Adventure girl said...

New here and to bloggin'
So many Heidi's in blog world.
I want to live on the farm, marry a farm boy and have a harley so bad!
That is awesome for you!
Heidi C
http://adventuregirlwannabee.blogspot.com/

Gizmo said...

I have left you an award over at my blog
http://www.gizmoquilts.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

I have been reading over your blog and I find your posts about farm life very interesting (I hope its ok for a guy to read too?), I especially liked the story about finding the bear hibernating. I was surprised to learn how little the farmer ends up keeping in milk production, it seems you deserve more. Keep up the good posts.

Far Side of Fifty said...

Love the baby feet..bet they smell good too!!

Anonymous said...

Rock on Lil Milk Dudes!

Whiterock said...

The peice of furniture behind Granny Farmer in the first picture, is beautiful. What is it?

Also, you can stand the little end of the corn cob in the hole in the middle of a bunt cake pan and when you cut it the kernels fall into the pan. Keeps it from slippin' around as you turn it.

WR