Our lives have been so abundantly blessed this past month with such delicious fresh-pickings from our garden!
In fact, just this week, we had fun canning salsa, freezing our sweet corn, pickling cucumbers, canning green beans, and also canning two batches of pasta sauce. Somewhere in there, we managed to clean the house. Believe me, it needed it.
August is always a busy month – but I love the busyness of harvesting produce that we grow ourselves. It is when all those hours I spent weeding and watering have come to fruition and my paycheck is in my hands!
I used to pick the corn early in the morning on the day we planned to cut it off the cobs, but a friend introduced me to a slightly different method a few years ago. I now pick and husk it the evening before and store it someplace cool until the next morning. This makes for a shorter, more easily-managed day for freezing corn!
However, I would recommend you make sure it is in someplace cool – such as coolers or tubs with lids, and sit it outside during the night. This year, I left the cobs in open boxes sitting in my kitchen. When I awoke the next morning, some of the kernels near the tops of the boxes had begun drying out. Otherwise, this method has worked really good for us the last few years!
The morning after we have picked and husked the corn, we begin to cook it. I like to run two huge pots of boiling water at once. After the water is boiling good, I put the corn in and cook it for 3 minutes.
Once the 3 minutes is up, we take it out of the boiling water and get it into cold water as fast as possible. I like to do this part outside! In fact, I like to do as much of corn day outside as I can since it is messy – but this year the bees had become really bad, so we were forced to do it inside.
This job of cooling the cobs was my job when I was just a little girl in curly pigtails.
I still love that job! But since I have six kids who need something to do . . . I’m forced to hand it over.
We like to fill both coolers with cold water and dump the freshly-cooked corn into one of the coolers. Once that water becomes warm, we transfer all the cobs into the second cooler to cool them down even more.
Kids love this job!
Then once the cobs are cooled, we bring them inside and lay them on a towel until the cutting begins.
I have two of these corn cutters and love them! However, it is very easy to cut yourself on them, so be careful. Derek and I did most of the cutting off this year since we were faster and safer. Even then, I like the younger ones to do it some so they get used to how it works and learn to use it safely – even if they are slower at it.
Amazon has several different kinds of these cutters. Below you will find a stainless steel one and also a wooden one.
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From the look on Logan’s face . . . this is not a job the kids thoroughly enjoy! But it’s good for them.
I love seeing a huge bowl full of fresh sweet corn ready to be bagged for the freezer.
Such a thing of beauty!
And since I have pretty much run out of freezer boxes already this year, we resorted to using freezer bags. We fill them, wipe them off, and put them in the freezer for winter!
Sweet corn is such a huge job, but so satisfying when it is done.
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MM says
Wow Kendra! You put up a huge amount of corn, and what a joy it will be through the winter to eat! We planted a few ears of corn, but nowhere near enough to put up that much at one time! Thanks for sharing what corn cutter that you use, I will look those up. How are the wildfires in your area? We are dealing with a lot of smoke, and high winds are supposed to come through here today. Praying that we all stay safe! Much love and hugs… your blogging friend in Idaho 🙂
Kendra says
I actually ran the mail route today, so I was up through some of the Parker Ridge fire area . . . and my lungs are trying to get rid of the smoke I inhaled for several hours. 🙁 It was horribly windy, but God sent a little rain – so that helped clear it some! Keep safe!