Budding Photographers...from Their Perspective

Whenever I have an electronic device in my hand, my nephews find me. If they see my smartphone, they put out their grubby little hands and look at me with those oh-so-sweet eyes. I do what any aunt would do...hand it over after turning off the phone function!

As for my camera, they are always cheesing in front of it (note the photo above of G-man) and then wanting to see the photos I take.

Recently, they've taken to my love of photography and wanted behind the camera - or they are just sick of having a camera in their faces all the time.

During our marathon sweet corn freezing, I was sitting on the kitchen for trying to get some shots from a different angle when it happened. I got attacked from both sides by nephews wanting my camera.

I won't say that they are budding photographers but they definitely show the world from their perspective!

Her exact words as the boys were taking this photo were "I don't want to end up on Aunt Mi-Mi's blog." Too bad! All I can think of when I see this one is "Talk to the hand..."

G-man had to re-create his mom's pose.

INCREDIBLE Sweet Corn...Freezer Here We Come

After the picking and shucking is done (actually while the shucking is being done), the action moves inside.

The ears are washed, whisking away as many of the remaining silks as humanly possible and then placed into boiling water to be blanched.

Blanched, isn't that a strange word? I think I used it correctly here. If I didn't, someone please let me know!

After a few minutes on the stove, the ears take a cool bath.

Then it's on to the cutting board.

Throughout my childhood, my mom used an electric knife to quickly remove the kernels from the cob. I was going to do a whole blog post about why we use an electric knife because of the quantity of corn we put up.

Imagine my surprise when I walked into the kitchen and saw this...

OK, I didn't get a good shot of the puny - oh so not electric knife - in mom's hand.

This one is a bit better...

After a few dozen ears done the old-fashioned way, my mom decided to go back to the electric knife because her hand was cramping. Unfortunately, the electric knife was no where to be found. We looked high and low; in cabinets and in drawers, but no electric knife. So, it was back to the little knife to finish up.

Once off the cob, it went into one of my mom's beautiful bowls. She has a weakness for beautiful crockery. I'm afraid I may have inherited the weakness. Fortunately I don't get to very many auctions, antique shops and estate sales so I'm safe for now.

Back to the corn...doesn't it look delicious!

Once there's enough in the bowl, it goes into quart-size freezer bags. Lil' Sister did the honors. We don't get precise when it comes to measuring how much goes into each bag.

After six buckets of corn picked, shucked, washed, blanched, cooled and cut, we ended up with 21 bags of corn ready for the freezer...

And a bucket (or two) of empty cobs ready for a return trip to the field.

We are not the only ones who enjoy corn on the cob. I found Molly enjoying an ear at the end of the evening.

Since our inaugural freeze fest, we've put up another 17 bags of corn and it's really just hitting its peak sweetness now. I think there may be some more freezing ahead of me.

That wraps up my series on INCREDIBLE Sweet Corn. Hope you enjoyed!

INCREDIBLE SWEET CORN...Shuckfest 2010

There are several jobs involved in freezing corn. The first is the picker who gathers the corn from the field. Is there a better name for that job? Picker sounds funny.

The second job is the shucker.

He was new to the job and figured it out eventually...

His mom and dad were a bit faster, but that's only because they've had years of practice!

When shucking, it's important to remove as many of the silks (those silky strands clinging to the ear) as possible. That's a beautiful ear of corn!

So you may be asking, "What happens to all of the shucks?"

This year we used the standard "little red wagon" that every farm family has to collect all of the shucks and move them to the field. This is much easier than cramming the shucks back into those hand 5-gallon buckets and carrying them away!

The nephews (with adult supervision) pulled the wagon full of shucks back to the cornfield for emptying(recycling/composting at the most basic level).

At first, they grabbed handfuls and threw them out...

Then after a helpful hint...

...the process went faster.

After all of the hard work, a well-deserved ride home!

Heading into the kitchen next...stay tuned.

INCREDIBLE Sweet Corn...Let the Freezing Begin

Last week my family gathered at the farm to freeze the first sweet corn of the season.

I took way too many photos (check out my Wordless Wednesday post from last week) and am having trouble editing them to just one post. So, I've decided to stretch it out into several posts over the week.

It all starts with the corn! A co-worker asked me what variety of sweet corn my dad planted this year and she rattled off three or four varieties. After seeing the blank look on my face, she shook her head and said "Never mind."

Truth be told, I hadn't seen an actual ear of corn off the stalk yet and hadn't asked what variety of sweet corn Dad planted this year. I just knew it was sweet corn and it was going to be GOOD!

Once on the farm with camera in hand, I went out to the field with Dad and asked what variety we were he was picking. I found out it was Incredible, a yellow corn. After a quick search on Purdue's web site, I found out that Incredible is a sugar-enhanced variety. According to the web site, "Sugar-enhanced (se) sweet corn has a higher sugar content and is more tender than standard sweet corn."

From the photo above, you may be wondering why the corn in front is shorter than the corn in the background. The reason is that the corn in the front is sweet corn and the corn in the back is field corn (or dent corn) which stays in the field until it's dried down in the fall and is used for livestock feed and processing (starch, alcohol and sugars).

Unlike most folks who plant a few rows of sweet corn in their gardens by hand, my dad uses a bit bigger piece of equipment - like a 12-row planter pulled by a very big tractor! This year, he planted five rows of sweet corn along the two short sides of the field closest to the house. He also has patches in a couple of other fields planted a bit later so we can enjoy sweet corn throughout the summer.

So, how does you know when the sweet corn is ready? Dad said that he looks at the size of the ears and squeezes the ear to see if it's firm. He also admitted that he "spot shucks" a couple of ears right on the stalk to make sure it looks ready to go!

This year the ears were slightly smaller than normal - probably because of the tremendous amount of rain we got early in the season and the lack of rain we've gotten in the last several weeks.

Note the 5-gallon bucket in his hand below. These buckets are staples around our farm. In my lifetime, I've seen them used for everything from gathering sweet corn from the field to transporting baby pigs. They are an essential tool on the farm!

Dad picked six buckets of corn for our first evening of freezing.

Tomorrow, the shucking begins! Stay tuned.