Jimmy crack corn and I don’t care
Jimmy crack corn and I don’t care
Jimmy crack corn and I don’t care
Jimmy crack corn and I don’t care
My master’s gone away.
So who is Jimmy and why does he crack corn? What is crackin’ corn anyway? 1
You know what? I don’t care about that either, but I do care about this:
this week’s finds at the Farmer’s Market.
While I rinsed and prepped for the salsa making to commence
I put my slave labor child labor children to shucking corn in preparation for the blanching and the freezing.
All the children wanted to do their part and this was also great work for a pair of special needs hands. Princerella had so much fun doing this and really worked hard. Look at that grin on her face, a bit proud of herself, wouldn’t you say?
After the salsa ingredients were chopped and ready for some cooking time I began slicing the ten pounds of yellow squash. Did you know that yellow squash oozes a liquid that coats your hands and is very hard to wash off? Seriously, after I was finished slicing and tossing in to a bowl all ten pounds of squash my hands felt like they had dried glued on them. But the dried goo did not peel away like the dried glue on my palms in the days of my youth. Did anyone else ever do that? You know, just because.
So my slave labor completed their job of corn shucking and I proceeded to blanch and freeze sixty-eight (yes, 68) ears of corn. But before your mouth drops open, remember we are a family of eight and this will not last us long. Thank you, Lord, for that refund a few years ago so we could buy that freezer.
Now, my feet are a bit sore and I have other work that needs to get done, like go eat a baked apple that is calling my name. My house smells so good right now.
The little red potatoes are in the pantry for part of lunch tomorrow, the eggplant will serve up some nice Eggplant Parmesan on Monday, the peaches will bake into a very nice cobbler or two next Tuesday. Oh, and last night we had tacos with my home made tortillas. My mouth is watering, how ’bout yours?
- FYI, I grew up hearing that “crack corn” referred to the crackin’ open a jug o’ corn liquor. ↩
What does blanching mean? And why do you need to do this to freeze the food? Am an idiot, apparently.
I totally used to put glue on my hands just because! Just because it was COOL! ;)
Triple M - :)
Blanching is boiling water and tossing the fresh veggies in for a designated amount of time, usually only a few mintues (it varies depending on the veggie or fruit), and then retrieving it from the boiling water and immediately submerging it into ice cold water to stop the cooking process.
The boiling water process stops the enzyme in the fruit/veggie that causes the fruit to mature, or ripen further (like that beautiful banana on your counter that slowly turns brown after a few days or how that plump fresh tomato you just picked turns to mush on your window sill). Submerging the fruit or veggie into ice cold water stops the cooking process you began by putting it in the boiling water. This allows your fruits and veggies to be frozen nicely without falling victim to mush in your freezer. There are some fruits and veggies that do not need blanching and the one that do all vary slightly by how much time they need in the boiling water bath.
This is becoming a post of it’s own. Wow. I’ll have to add this and more to my kitchen pages soon. Keep your eyes peeled.
Cool, thanks!
Looks like you’ve been busy.
I’m unsure what to do with my extras. I’ve never canned and I didn’t think you could freeze zucchini or squash. I do plan on learning to can our tomatoes, but what about the okra?
Good call on the freezer! Wish we had one.
Marye~s last blog post..Gardening in the Yard
Marye - yes, you can freeze squash and corn. See up there in my lists, I sliced and blanched and froze 10 pounds of squash. You can do the same with zucchini. And as far as what to do with the extras, just send them my way.