Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Preserving Corn

A couple weekends ago I canned corn with my mother-in-law. This was my first experience using my new pressure canner. We canned 11 dozen ears and ended up with 42 pints of corn. 30 pints is what I am brought home. My goal is to have 50 pints, so I will be doing another batch again soon. The corn I used was fresh local corn on the cob. So delicious. I am so excited to have this corn. It will be awesome to have this winter.The process for canning corn is very easy. Just shuck the corn. Many hands make quick work.Then we cleaned the corn under cool running water. Cut it off the cob. Filled hot jars with corn, added 1/4 tsp salt and ladled boiling water over the top leaving 1" head space. Apply lids and bands. Pressure can for 55 minutes. There is alot of waiting involved in pressure canning. My MIL has her own canner and I brought my new one to use as well. Having 2 made the process go fairly quickly.This post is linked to Simple Lives Thursday at A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa.

15 comments:

  1. Oh my that is a mountain of corn! Thanks for linking up to Simple Lives Thursday!

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  2. Very cool!! Thanks for sharing!! I am interested in freezer canning some corn for my child care-USDA prohibits the serving of home canned foods in Child care programs on the USDA food program- thanks for the boost that it 'can't be that bad' :) Congrats on your growing stock of goods for winter!!

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  3. That's a lot of corn!

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  4. so impressed! I hope to borrow my mom's pressure canner if I can find some good local corn.

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  5. Kim, you can freeze corn as well. It is so easy. Just blanch it for 4-5 minutes, cut it off the cob and place in freezer bags or containers. I would have liked to do some of this too but I have limited freezer space at the moment.

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  6. Sara, I love this post. I read it yesterday and was totally inspired to find a large qty of corn to save. Do you by chance have any local sources? Thanks so much Sara!!

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  7. I recently froze corn - how did you get it off the cob? I'm looking for an easier way. That Oxo stripper thing didn't work for me. Corn blog: http://kitchenkungfu.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/chillin-of-the-corn/

    I also used my pressure canner for the first time. It looks like we have the same one. I agree - lots of waiting. But it was easy and not as scary as I thought. I canned green beans and beef stew. Pressure canning post: http://kitchenkungfu.wordpress.com/2010/07/17/under-pressure/

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  8. Diana, I have been buying my corn from the Adel corn stand. It is wonderful! Peaches and Cream, my favorite. They have 4 stands around. 2 in Ankeny, 1 on NE 14th by 66th Ave (Corporate Woods Dr.) and 1 on the east side of Des Moines. I have bought corn from the Grimes Sweet Corn stand but have not had much luck with them. The 2 times I bought it, it was wormy.

    kitchenkungfu (love the name :) ) I just cut my corn off the cob with a sharp knife. Works great.

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  9. To cut the corn off the cob a trick I was taught is to place the corn on the middle of an angel food cake pan or bundt cake pan the corn falls into the pan and you don't have to move the cut corn out of the way. hths

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  10. Great tip. We held our corn on end and cut it into a 13x9 inch pan. Made less of a mess this way.

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  11. In addition to the 12 pints I canned with you during our Great Corn Canning Experience I have picked up 3 dozen ears twice this week and canned 18 more pints. Plus last night we went to the Colo Farmer's Market and the vendor was selling 4 dozen at $4/dozen and then he threw in one dozen for free! Couldn't say no to that, so I went home and canned 8 more pints and 6 quarts! My total count so far is 38 pints and 6 quarts. I want to put up one more canner load and then I want to freeze a batch. Joel helps shuck and cut the corn off the cob, so I only have to do the canning part alone and it's pretty easy. We're getting a good process going. What kind of prices are you finding? We've paid $5 and $6 and then last night we got our big deal that came out to $3.20/dozen! That cheapened up our $6 bunches. Mom B.

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  12. Your doing great. The corn I have been buying is $5/dozen. $4/dozen if you buy 10 dozen or more.

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  13. I planted 3 short rows of heirloom corn and it is ready to harvest. I plan on drying it to put into "dinner is in the jar" meals. I can't wait to get out there and dive in. I am also going to allow a few ears to dry naturally for seeds for next year's crop. /this is a first for me and I am excited.

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  14. I lucked out and local corn is 99c/dozen. I got 3 dozen on my first trip and plan to get more! I'm freezing mine, since I got plenty of sapce and it's easiest. You have a lot of gumption to be canning that much. I'm still scared, but I know I'll get over it!

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