Harvesting our Indiana Sweet Corn

One of the things that I love about Indiana, is the sweet corn.
It's so sweet & delicious that you don't care if you have butter running down your chin while you are eating corn on the cob.
Actually, that's part of eating it. :)
We had 3 50 foot rows of corn this year, & we were blessed with a wonderful crop.
This wheelbarrow is full of 1 row of corn.
Here the tractor wagon is holding the other 2 rows.

It took me quite a few hours to shuck this load. We also had a lot of baby corn this year, but I'll do a seperate post on them later.
We had a lot of really nice ears.

I love to see a sink full of corn!

Here is our process for preserving the corn by freezing it.

Freezer Corn

Shuck the corn & remove all the silk.
Rince the corn in a sink full of water.
Bring large pots of water to a boil.
Place the corn in the boiling water, & when the water returns to a boil, time the corn for 5-6 minutes.
Immerse the boiled corn into a sink full of ice water.
Cut the corn off the cob.
Place into freezer bags. (I put 3 cups into quart freezer bags.)
Write the date on the bags & put them in the freezer.

To prepare the freezer corn:
Remove from freezer & thaw overnight in the frig, or pop it in the microwave for 1 minute. Add 1-2 T. butter & some salt & pepper. Cook (microwave or stovetop) until warmed through. Easy. Delicious.

It really is easy. It's not near as tedious as green beans. After canning green beans I always look forward to doing the corn!
One 'trick' that I use is that I have a 'system' using my double sinks. If you've got a LOT of corn, you can set it up as sort of an assembly line. The corn can be stacked on the counter to the left of the sinks. The corn getting rinsed sits in the left sink. The corn that is done, that has been boiled for 5 or 6 minutes sits in the right sink. You wont get them mixed up, because the corn that has already been blanced is a deeper color than the un-blanced corn.

As far as cutting the corn off the cob, my husband likes to use a nice sharp knife. After you cut the corn off the cob, be sure to use the back of your knife & go over the cob again to get all the 'corn juice'. I like to use what I call a 'corn cutter'. I know that's not the name of it. It's not one of those plier looking things, it looks more like a slicer. I really like it. I can cut corn really fast with it. I've never cut myself with it, but it wouldn't be pretty if that ever happened. I have used this 'corn cutter' for at least 15 years. My M-i-L gave it too me, & I think she got it at a garage sale. You can also use an electric knife. That's what my dad always used.

Here is our table full of corn! You can see my corn cutter on the left side of the table. My husband & I work together & it makes it go faster. We each have a spot at the table with a pan of corn ready to be cut, our cutting areas (LOOK at those two mountains of corn!), & we also have a bag for the cobs but I moved it for the picture. When we've cut a bit of corn, I stop cutting & get it all bagged up. I put 3 cups per quart freezer bag. Then I rinse the bags (they get sticky) & set them on a towel to dry & go back to cutting. When I go to bag the next load I date the load I did earlier & put it in the freezer.

This year I didn't get a picture of all the bags when we were done, because we had so much I needed to put them away in the freezer as we worked.
Our total this year was 54 quart bags.
It's so great to fill the freezer back up with corn.
Thank you LORD our Provider for a wonderful harvest.