Thanksgiving Corn????

What says summer more than fresh corn on the cob?!?!? And this year there was an abundance of corn! Last week we picked all of our corn (after eating it nightly for about two weeks) to freeze for the winter. Corn is a great summer crop to put away and enjoy during the colder months. Each year at the beginning of August we freeze our corn for the winter...and especially for Thanksgiving.

Each year while we'd be freezing corn, my dad, aunt, and mom would talk about freezing it for Thanksgiving dinner. Finally, one year I asked why it had to be saved only for Thanksgiving!?!?! Now it's a running joke each year that we're freezing "Thanksgiving corn." In reality we only use a few bags for Thanksgiving, the rest is up for grabs anytime.

Last year we had to buy corn from a local farmer because our corn crop didn't do as well. Luckily this year was much better! However, if you don't have room to grow corn in your garden, you can usually buy it in bulk from a local farmer! And since it stores so well, I would highly recommend buying some and freezing it!

Steps to freeze corn:

1. Pick and clean the corn


2. Blanch in boiling water for about three minutes (I'm not sure why the water is not boiling in the picture???)


3. Immediately remove the corn from the boiling water and place it in ice water to stop the cooking process. Keep it in there for a few minutes...until it's cool to the touch


4. Remove the corn from the cob. We've tried using the special tool made for taking corn off the cob but we like using knives better. We've also tried to freeze the corn on the cob but found that it was mushy when we cooked it later.


5. Place corn into freezer bags and freeze!

(Notice--another picture with Aunt Mary in it...she was complaining again!)

Final product

Notice the large bag in front...that's the specially designated "Thanksgiving corn"

Garden update...

Here's what's happening this week:

Green beans are almost ready! That means I'll be spending a LOT of time in the coming weeks picking beans...not fun! (If you look really closely, you'll see a small, little green bean!)




The first batch of beets are done. My mammaw always pickles them for us. I still think they taste like dirt but my Aunt Mary loves them!





My parents had some broccoli this week...more coming very soon!






Corn is coming up nicely!













The first onions and yellow squash are done...I'm making a stir fry this weekend!

All in a weekend's work

As I mentioned, Race Weekend is a busy time in the garden. Over the weekend we also planted our "late" green beans. Over the past few years I have been harassing my dad about spreading out our harvest so that we have more fresh veggies throughout the year. We've been planting early and late green beans for the last few years. The early beans went in about a month ago and here's what they look like now:



Now it's time to plant the late beans. We usually plant two rows, each row is about three plants thick.



My mom only helped for about 5 minutes but somehow she ended up in a picture :) I think she wanted it as proof so we can't say she never helps!


Last year we had an amazing crop of green beans! Our early plants were still producing well into the time that our late beans started producing. We had green beans coming out our ears!!! We canned plenty to go around for the winter. I actually have about 3 cans left. We're pretty good about not wasting anything, so whatever isn't eaten immediately gets canned or frozen. I had to get a new freezer this year to hold all the goodies we put away from last years garden. A great problem to have!

This weekend we also replanted our corn. For some reason it was not coming up well. I think the ground was too wet when we planted but my dad thinks we had bad seeds. Whatever the reason, we got a new crop planted after a minor problem with the tiller...


Hopefully this time will work out! And hopefully Dad fixed the tiller :)