Freezing Corn

I tried planting a late batch of corn this year, but it's been so hot and dry that only a grand total of THREE stalks have made an appearance.  Rather than worrying about it all, I went and bought some organic sweet corn from a local farmer.  {Thankful for good friends who find and share good deals with me!!}  $15 is not a bad deal for a bushel of local sweet corn!  I'd say it's pretty thrifty!  Who says eating healthy is expensive??

I bought 2 1/2 bushels of corn and came out with about 40 quarts of frozen corn {plus some caned corn}. ~ Not too bad!!

Directions:

A corn husking party!!  The first step is husking the corn, which is why we have children!!  Hand them the bags or boxes of corn and tell them they can play in the sprinkler or pool when the job is done - and done RIGHT - and you'll be surprised at how quickly that corn gets husked!!  Oh, and you might want to do it all outside...not a fan of silks all over the kitchen.

Blanching the corn:  Clean the corn and put it in boiling water for about 7 - 10 minutes. Cooking at high temperatures kills bacteria.  Remove corn from boiling water and put in a big bucket of ice water to stop the cooking quickly.  Be sure you use plenty of ice to keep the water cold and bring down the temperature of the corn as quickly as possible.

Freezing the corn:  At this point you can freeze the corn on the cob, which is the easiest way to do it.  All you do is put the cold, cooked ears of corn in your freezer container - I used gallon sized zip lock bags - remove the air and seal the containers.

~ Frozen corn on the cob ~

I try to put 6 ears in one bag since that's what it would take to feed my family.

Or, you can cut the corn off the cob.  My husband prefers it this way because it doesn't get stuck in his teeth.  :)   I believe they actually make corn cutters that will help you cut the kernels of corn off the cob in even pieces, but since I don't have one of those, I use my electric knife.  Sorry, no pictures of this step because my hands were corny {kinda like my jokes} and I really didn't think about it. 

Once the kernels are cut off the cob, we scoop them up and put them in quart sized zip lock bags according to how much we would use per meal.

We make a few bags with less for things like soup or chicken pot pie.  Be sure you put only what you plan on using for one meal per bag.  You want to use it all once you've thawed it out.  Below are some of the smaller bags for meals that don't require as much.

Spread bags of corn out flat on shelves to freeze.  Don't stack them on top of each other before they're frozen.  This way you can be sure they all freeze quickly and thoroughly.  Once they are frozen, you can stack them neatly in the freezer to save space.  {Mine will be moved to the big, deep freezer as soon as I get it cleaned out and organized.}  Don't forget to date the bags so you can keep up with how old it is! 

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