"Field" Trip

Our family visited a local farm last week for a quick little "field" trip. This family lives in a beautiful house on about 15 acres of land. They grow all sorts of fruits and veggies, but what they're known for is their rows and rows of delicious sweet corn.

People used to be able to pick their own corn, but apparently this caused too much damage to their stalks, so the corn is pre-picked and just waiting for you to pick it up. Jeepers was just going crazy over the collection of tractors though.

We brought our corn home and boiled some, grilled some, froze some for later. Did you know that corn has lots of starches (duh, corn starch), but because of this you should eat it or preserve it quickly after picking or it will start molding? Did you also know you can't make popcorn out of regular eating corn? Popcorn has a different shape, moisture content, and more that make it specific to popping. Bummer, that would have been fun.

So, in an effort of learning how to preserve our harvest, we decided to try drying. We boiled the corn for 5 minutes, then dipped in straight into icy cold water. Once it was cool enough to handle, I cute off the corn and it all went in the oven.

After 3-4 hours at 170 degrees, the corn was dry and a little chewy. Four ears of corn only filled half of my quart size jar. We'll have to go to the farm next week to get some more. Next time I make soup or chili with corn, I'm going to use this dried stuff and see how it works. (Of course, I'll let you know!)

Of course, nothing beats fresh picked corn, but it's not always in season. I think next time I'll try a bottling recipe that I just found.