WFMW: Freezing Summer Sweet Corn

My husband and I are both city kids. He grew up all over the country, but mostly in big cities or large metro areas. I've only lived in a mid-size metro area and a college town. We know next to nothing about agriculture even though we live in the middle of the Midwest and are surrounded by the richest land and fertile crops and livestock.

We are blessed to have friends who have moved to the big city after college, but grew up on farms and still have parents/siblings, etc living on the land. As a result, we get some great produce this time of the year. Tomatoes so fresh you could eat them like Apples, Sweet Corn that makes you smile, and Zucchini so yummy.

Yummo!!

Last year, our friends shared with us some of their sweet corn crop and showed us how to freeze it for the winter so you can enjoy the fresh sweet taste all year long. Let me just say that we are now so spoiled. No more Bird's Eye Frozen Corn for us...we've tasted nirvana and can never go back.

This past weekend was "Corn Weekend". Here's the process.

First Shuck the Corn Cobs. Guess really first is find some good sweet corn either from a nearby farm you pick yourself or at a farmer's market.

Clean the Corn with a veggie brush to make sure there are no loose strands of the corn husk, Use a handy dandy Corn Zipper by Kuhn Rikon to get the kernels off the cob and then squeeze some of the juice into a bowl. You can use a knife, but this new tool this year worked like a charm. Just remember to clean it off often so it doesn't get gunked up.

In a large stock pot over a medium heat, place 10 cups of corn, 1 cup of water, 1/2 a cup of sugar, a very small handful of salt and cook the corn until it comes to a boil and then let it boil for about 10 minutes.

Let the corn cool in 9x 13 pans until it is no longer steaming and is cool to the touch.

Place about 3 cups of the corn in Ziploc Freezer Bags; Quart Size. Lay them flat on a cookie sheet and place in a big freezer. Let them freeze solid.

To use the frozen corn you can either defrost in the microwave for a few minutes and then cook on stove top or you can place frozen corn on stove and slowly heat it through.

We just ate our last bag of sweet corn last week from our 08 bags. It is a family favorite. No need to add anything to it.We estimate that a cooler full of corn produces about 10 or 11 bags of 3 cups of corn each. Not the most scientific measure but when you get in the midst of making all this corn it's easy to loose track. We made about 35-40 with 3 coolers full of corn this weekend.

Eating fresh summer sweet corn all year long works for our family. To check out more WFMW ideas see We Are That Family.