Putting Up Corn for Winter

This past weekend we were lucky enough to snag some corn from my lumberjack uncle’s corn patch.  He’s a very generous man and he puts out a big patch for the whole family to enjoy.  He grows a yellow variety called Bodacious.

We picked with my Mom, my brother and his family.  It was enjoyable watching my nieces who are 6 and 2 pick corn with us.  While we’re looking for the fullest ears and how to tell which to pick, the 6 year-old tells me, “If I’m going to live in the country, you have to teach me this stuff”.   That warmed my heart.  She’s a sweetie and I hope she continues to enjoy life in the country and all that entails.

We didn’t count how many ears we ended up with, but we think it was close to 20 dozen (minus the 8 we had for lunch!).  We set out Saturday morning putting it up.  It took us a total of 5 hours from shucking to clean up (with lunch somewhere in the middle).  We decided to do it outside, pioneer-style over an open flame.

We first blanched the ears for a few minutes then submerged them in ice water until they were cool enough to handle.  We kept the ice water in a cooler in hopes of keeping the water colder longer.  We’re not sure how well it worked.  We added ice after about every 2 batches.

Then I got to use my old enamelware bowl and my favorite knife to cut the corn off the cob.

Here’s a video of how we cut it off the cob. 

We ended up with 31 quart size bags.  We put about 3 cups in each bag.  It’s just Hubz and me so we don’t need a full quart for a meal. 

Afterwards, we gave some of the wormy ears to the chickens. 

This post was shared on the Homestead Barn Hop at The Prairie Homestead.

AND at Monday Mania at the Healthy Home Economist.