Crazy Corn

3 Comments

Posted on February 8, 2020

We were away for 4 days but by the time we arrived home 2 days ago the corn was ready to harvest. I picked a total of 28 cobs. Apart from setting aside 1 cob for GMan to have for lunch today I processed all of the corn.

My preferred option is to blanch the cobs then strip the kernels to freeze and use as required.

To see the full details of the process I use please check this old post from 2014.

This year I ended up with 2.5kg of frozen corn kernels.

2020-02-08

The corn is not the only produce we have in abundance at the moment. We have been picking, eating and giving away figs aplenty. The persistent rain over the past week has been the enemy but I am not about to complain. Additionally, we have been fortunate to able to pick dozens of mangoes from a neighbour’s trees. I shared some with friends and family as well as freezing multiple jars of pulp and containers of mango pieces.

Processing large quantities of a particular harvest can be a bit time-consuming but it ensures that as little as possible is wasted as well as providing the opportunity to enjoy your own local produce for an extended period through the year.

Storing the Surplus

4 Comments

Posted on February 2, 2014

As I mentioned yesterday, I picked corn. I ended up with about 18 cobs and after The Duke had 2 for his lunch I was still left with a lot of corn to keep for another day. After doing a bit of research, I decided to blanch it, strip the kernels and freeze them.

Here is what I did.

Cooked 3 – 4 cobs at a time for 6 minutes in boiling water. It needs to be a large enough volume so that the water returns to a rolling boil within 1 – 2 minutes of adding the corn.

Remove the corn from the water using a slotted spoon and drop immediately into iced water for 6 minutes.

Strip the kernels from the cob using a sharp knife. In the instructions I found on the internet someone suggested using a bundt tin to support the narrow end of the cob while cutting the kernels off. I happened to have one of these so tried out. I was very pleased with the ease of removing the kernels and the tin was perfect to catch them in.

I gently stirred the mixture to separate the kernels and spread them on 2 trays, covered them and placed them in the freezer overnight. I weighed the kernels before I froze them and my efforts yielded 1.7kg.

This morning I removed the frozen kernels and packed them into 2 containers. This way the kernels are individually frozen and I can remove as much or as little as I need at a time.

Despite my despair of a few weeks ago, the corn has been a real success and there are more cobs which will probably be ready next week.

Fabulous February

Corn Collapse

6 Comments

Posted on January 12, 2014

It would be heartbreaking – not to mention an economic nightmare – being a farmer. It was bad enough when my lovely little crop of corn was just about flattened almost a week ago. We had a 40C + day with hot wind followed the next day by wild thunderstorms, gale force winds and rain.

This was the result.

The following afternoon I managed to add some extra soil/mulch to the bed and propped them back as upright as I could. I was not overly optimistic but it appears to have been reasonably successful.

Here is the same bed 5 days later.

Meanwhile, we continue to manage to harvest something from the garden almost every day. This is quite an achievement since we devote almost no time to it and a lot is actually self-sown. Today’s bounty included blueberries, cherry tomatoes, pumpkin, figs, avocadoes and eggs from the chickens.