A Golden Time of Year

The sunshine isn't only in the sky these days. It's blessing the gardens too, with yellow tomatoes, yellow squash and that favored veggie, sweet corn. Our first planting of Early Sunglow is maturing now, and it's coming on quickly because of the high temperatures we've been experiencing the past two weeks. 100 degrees is not fun, and it's a wonder the corn isn't popping in the fields.

Larry has brought in one and a half bushels in the past two days and that's probably the end of this planting. The chickens will get the nubbin ears that are left on the stalks, and the turkeys will get some too, of course. Larry shucked it all for me; what a sweetheart.

We're struggling to keep the cucumbers and cooler weather crops going, but corn loves heat apparently because it's thriving, at least for the time being. We have two more plantings to come in later, so the fact that we got covered up quickly with this planting means most of it has to go in the freezer or be canned. Since it's so hot, and since I prefer the taste of frozen corn, into the freezer it's going.

My job was to wash the corn in cold water,

Cut it off the cob, then blanche it in boiling water for about a minute or so--I like using my crab boiler (I think that's what this pot with it's sieve is called) because I can blanche large amounts of veggies at one time and strain and rinse them under cold water easily when they're finished blanching);

and bag it up for the freezer.

We ended up with 12 and a half quart bags. Honestly, I wish they still made pint freezer bags because a quart is a lot for two people to eat, and even if we just use part of a bag we still need to use the rest quickly so it doesn't freezer-burn or spoil.

If you're a newbie to gardens and preserving food, the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving is a good guide. Even if you're an old hand, you're likely to find something new to try. Don't forget the old standards, either, like

Complete Guide to Home Canning and Preserving by the USDA.

You might also want to visit Tipper, who is doing the step-by-step process of making sauerkraut the old-fashioned way--in a stone crock. And over at Warren's, he is up to his ears in blackberries and mushrooms. 

To be sure, it's summer! Now if we can just get through this heat wave without losing our gardens entirely, we'll be fine.

Just for fun, here's a couple of stories about heat and popcorn. I'm telling this Paul Bunyan tale this year as part of my summer library programs. And well-loved storyteller Chuck Larkin used to tell this tale about corn popping in the field. Enjoy--maybe with a big bowl of popcorn?