For those of you who are new to our sweet corn: it is like no other corn you have ever eaten. You don't have to rush home and eat it quickly like some varieties and it stays sweet and crisp for days. We grow a gourmet variety that has been developed to be very sweet, but tender at the same time.
Cooking tip: due to the extreme tenderness, you DO NOT NEED TO BOIL THE CORN LONGER THAN 2-3 minutes. Boil your water first (very important), then put your corn in. Modern sweet corn varieties do not need to be cooked to death like the sweet corns of 30 & 40 years ago. When you get home, shuck all your corn at one time (one mess!). Put the corn you aren't going to use immediately in a zip top bag in the fridge. Keeping it in the husk pulls moisture away from the cob. Also, if one of those nasty corn bore worms are in there--they'll eat the entire ear!
Also, don't worry about the corn going bad if you buy too much! It is so simple to process an ear or two at a time when you are fixing corn for dinner. We understand why some folks don't want a full dozen. Continuing on from the above cooking process, only have the corn in the water about 2 minutes. Immediately put the hot corn in ice cold water. This stops the cooking process (aka blanching). When the corn is cool enough to handle, cut off the kernels with a serrated knife, put in a freezer bag (food saver systems are fabulous for this, too!) and enjoy this winter! We have had customers tell us that they have had good success in freezing the corn directly on the cob. We've experimented with it, but don't really care for the taste. Give it a try--you may not notice any taste difference (we are a little picky about corn tastes--kind of like wine snobs). It's very easy to cook an ear and pop it in the fridge.
Talking about putting up corn brings me to another topic: preservation of foods and seasonal eating. Mercy from Blueschool House touched on this topic in her blog discussing Victory Gardens during WWII. Within 2 generations, Americans have become out of touch with the seasonality of their food and most have no idea how to preserve food for winter or hard times.
Many of us remember canning times: hot, steamy kitchens; cranky grandmas and aunts; the scary squeal of the pressure canner! Unless you are very motivated, you don't need to put up 100 quarts of green beans or tomato sauce. Canning can be a very quick way to preserve the bounty of summer and retain much of the integrity of the food product. I am tossing around the idea of hosting a small canning class for newbies a little later this summer. Interested? Wanted to learn to can, but find it intimidating? Drop me a note in the comments if you might be interested. I didn't learn to can until I got roped into chopping tomatoes for my mother in law--it is much more comfortable to learn while watching!
Anyhoo--running out of time--gotta go pick sweet corn for y'all and I haven't taken Bill any coffee yet.
What will you find at our stand tomorrow?
- Sweet corn, sweet corn, sweet corn!
- Tomatoes-the full size ones!
- cherry & grape tomatoes
- zucchini
- summer squash
- cucumbers
- eggplant-regular & Asian
- leeks
- onions
- beets
- possibly greens: collard, swiss chard, arugula
- garlic
- shallots
- green beans
- green peppers
- sweet banana peppers--I'll have a recipe on the blog soon!
- hot Hungarian peppers
2 comments:
Patt,
I, for one, would be very interested in attending a canning class. I do not have any family members left to learn it from and the thought of learning it out of a book has left me a bit afraid.
Thank you so much for thinking of it and I hope you decide to do it.
Lori
Interesting to know.
Post a Comment