Freezing Fresh Corn

Freezing Corn from the Farm



Liliana husks corn.



      Since my Mom and Dad grow corn on their farm, freezing corn for the winter was always a rite of summer.  As a child, my favorite task was to move steaming hot corn from the first ice bath to the second ice bath.  What is more fun than playing with water and ice in the kitchen sink while my mother, aunts, and cousins scurried around and chatter abounded?  This past week, Liliana helped to husk some corn (for a few corn ears!) and then Mom and my Aunt Amy and I froze a batch of corn.



       In case you have access to fresh corn and haven't done it before, freezing corn is simple in its process.  Basically, you want to partially cook the corn, then quickly change to corn's temperature to be as cold as possible as quickly as possible (blanching) so that the corn does not continue to cook.  Once that is done, the corn is cut off the corn ear, scooped into a freezer bag, then frozen.



Boiling the corn
 for 3 minutes.





Spraying cold water

on the cooked corn



       We start the process by husking the corn, taking the time to remove as much of the corn silk as possible (and cut away any imperfections or bad spots).  Water in large pots is heated to a boil (due to boiling water, I sent my girls to bed for their nap so that they were safely away from the stove).  Once the water is boiling, add the husked ears of corn, being sure that the corn is mostly submersed in the water.  When the water is back to boiling, time it for 3 minutes, then remove the corn from the boiling water.  We use tongs and place the steaming hot ears in a colander that is on top of a pan.  Quickly move to the kitchen sink and either run under cold water or submerse in an ice bath. 



Corn chilling in an ice bath.



       Once the corn is slightly cooler, move the corn to a second ice bath (a large bowl of water with frozen chunks of ice--we usually freeze water ahead of time in 1/2 gallon milk containers).  Once the corn is sufficiently cold, take the corn and cut off the corn kernels (a serrated knife works best for me).  Place the corn kernels in a Ziploc freezer bag, and place freezer bags in freezer.  It is important to immediately take batches of the filled freezer bags to the freezer since if left out, the corn will continue to cook and become bad tasting.  And that is all there is to it! 



Liliana sneaks a taste!



       You'll then have lots of bags of corn to heat up all winter!  If you have a different corn freezing variation, I'd love to hear it!  I love to freeze corn--maybe because it makes me so happy to think that on some cold, snowy winter's day, I can feast on a beautifully steamy corn dish and taste the freshness of harvest-time!

Vera Rose with the feed sack of left-over husks (to be fed to the cattle!)





A Corn Feast

A Little Corn Feast

Golden Summer Squash & Corn Soup (see link for recipe)



Rachel with Liliana & Vera Rose, as our meal on the balcony begins.

Pasta made with fresh corn, goat cheese crumbles in a
skim milk sauce, and my favorite blend of spices, Herbs de Provence

Monk's Fire Bread, fresh tomatoes with
basil & mozzerella, and grilled sweet potato

 

Liliana "fed" her sister
 some raw corn.

       One of our favorite days of the week are Tuesdays because my cousin, Rachel, always comes for dinner and then gives Liliana and Vera Rose "Spanish lessons" which basically means they are listening as she speaks to them in Spanish for a few hours as they play together.  The idea is that somewhere in their little formitive minds, those sounds are being stowed away in case they ever decide to learn Spanish later in life--hopefully it will be that much easier for them with the early exposure to the sounds.  Ideally, I'd love for them to be exposed to many languages:  French, Russian, Navajo, etc, but we just happen to have a fluent Spanish speaker in our family who is also a good friend!  Liliana watches for Rachel all during the meal preparation and both girls squeal with glee when Rachel arrives.


Liliana ate the raw ears
as fast as they appeared
while I was busy with
meal preparation!

       Today, our Tuesday meal also coincided with the ripening of corn in my parents' fields so we did homage to corn at our meal.  I made "Golden Summer Squash & Corn Soup", pasta with corn & basil, and, of course, corn-on-the-cob.  I adore soup although soup is usually not Brian's favorite, so I was so excited when he mentioned this morning that the Monk's Fire Bread (that he purchased at a local orchard/bakery) would be good with soup.  So, I dusted off the Blue Italian cream soup bowls and prepared an ode to corn, complemented with a hearty, crusty, brown bread and some fresh tomatoes with basil & mozzerella, some grilled chicken, and grilled sweet potato.  (And yes, we have lots of left-overs).  Yay for the corn harvest!