Sunday, August 31, 2014

OK - So I was waaayyy wrong!

It's time for Mark to eat a bit more crow along with his sweet corn. You will recall a month or so ago I claimed that while the rest of garden was doing OK, the sweet corn was going to be pretty much a "total loss".  Ummm....  oops.

I few days ago I showed you what turned out be about 4 dozen ears we were able to"'salvage" out of the two corn plots, with more to come.  Then there was yesterday:


Yes Ma'am, that's about 8 dozen more ears of "total loss" in the wheelbarrow along with the Stripetti spaghetti squash, yellow summer squash, cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, and enough potatoes for Sunday lunch.  There's probably another 8 to 10 dozen out there yet that will need to come out in a few days.  It seems I was (once again) wrong in a spectacular fashion.

As we were working through getting it all in the freezer, I thought it might be worth noting that De has come up with a somewhat unique way of keeping the usually corn processing mess down a bit.  I don't know if it's original to her, but it works well and is worth sharing.

The whole thing starts the way it does for everyone else, I suppose.   After husking there is cleaning, blanching and cooling.  Our 'assembly line' probably looks much like yours.
Blanching, Cooling and Drying
The interesting part comes when getting the kernels off the cobs.  She has a circular 'corn cutter' to shave the kernels off, but uses an angel food cake pan as a sort of 'catch basin'.  It looks like this:

The ear is perched on the center post of the pan with the cutter over the ear

The cutter gets pushed down along the ear

The kernels end up (mostly) in the cake pan!

She sets her canning funnel in a quart freezer bag

In goes the corn!

Somewhat smaller kernels than usual means about 1 quart of yummy goodness in the freezer for every dozen ears.
For De, this method is quite a bit less messy and considerably quicker than cutting the corn onto a cutting board then scooping it into the bag.  I thought it worth sharing.

Either way, more unexpected blessings out of the garden!  Anyone have a good recipe for crow?

Col. 1:9-12,

Mark





1 comment:

  1. Hey, getting as much wonderful corn as you have constitutes a tasty meal of crow, no matter how you prepare it! I'm still in the group saying our corn (Painted Mountain) is going to be a bust. I wouldn't mind eating some crow right alongside you though if ours does have time to mature!

    I've seen the angel food cake pan method recommended before, but that doesn't mean De isn't a very bright lady (we gals hate more messes in the kitchen than are absolutely necessary!) to have come up with it herself.

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