Preserving: Blanching and Freezing Corn

Trying to eat local during the late fall and winter months can be tough, especially when the last of the tomatoes, green beans and corn slowly come to a halt. But you can enjoy a menu of local corn with an easy process call blanching and freezing. Blanching is when you cook a produce such as corn, broccoli, green beans and greens in boiling water, then stop the cooking process by putting directly into freezing water.  Then the veggie is bagged and popped into the freezer. See below for some easy steps and tips.

Above is the local farmers' market corn on the cob with the husk removed and rinsed, lovely right.

Boil a large pot of water. To speed up this process, put a lid on the pot. Then once boiling put the veggies in, for corn let it cook for 7-8 minutes. There are great web sites that will provide blanching time for each vegetable.

Then from the hot bath to the cold bath. This stops the cooking process. I add ice the bowl to make the water good and cold.

Once the cob is cool enough to handle, use a knife to cut the corn off the cob.

Then you put the corn into a freezer bag and pop it into the freezer, until you need it another day.

Tip 1: To get a close to vacuum seal, try this. Get a straw, with the bag full seal the bag with the straw in the opening. Then using your mouth to suck the air out of the bag. Then while still sucking the air out, slip the straw out and seal the rest of the way.

Tip 2: During another corn freezing day, I had a great idea. Recipes vary for the amount of corn needed, right? So I had some small "snack" ziplock bags and it hit me... Put one cob of corn into each snack bag then place three to four of those bags into a quart size bag and freeze.

If you have any tips, please leave a comment below. I love to learn from others.

So what do you eat?

The way we eat has become a foundation of who we are. A person could be any of the following and I’m sure there are other new definitions being created as I speak.

Vegetarian – someone who lives on diet of plant based foods, eggs and dairy.

Vegan – someone who consumes only plant foods such as vegetables, grains, legumes (beans and peas), fruits, nuts and seeds. Avoiding all animal foods including meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy, and honey.

Flexitarian –  someone who eats vegetarian or vegan most of the time but eats meat and animal products every now and then. Also, could be called a semi-vegetarian.

Locavore – someone who eats food made near where they live, usually within 100 miles.

 

In the winter of 2010, after the birth of my daughter, I started getting interested in watching documentaries. My first one was Food Inc., after viewing the film, I had a desire to start making better choice about the food my family ate.

So for defining purposes, my family is a Flexitarian with a lot of Locavore and Homegrown thrown in. And to keep things interesting, my step-daughter is also a Chickenarian, one of those new words/terms I mentioned above. We have a 2 chicken flock in our backyard, they give us eggs and after they are done producing eggs. They will become well….dinner. So after time to think about this Avery at the ripe of age of 9 decided to stop eating chicken all together. Avery will be turning 11 in February and is still chickenless.

In the summer of 2011, I moved and expanded our failing first garden. In the garden, I grew tomatoes, melons, carrots and peppers. The garden did wonderful and in 2012 we made and installed all raised beds and expanded the garden just a little. We grew tomatoes (several varieties), peas, cucumbers, green beans, greens, lettuce, peppers, carrots, pumpkins, herbs, blueberries and raspberries. The garden did fantastic, leaving me with the planning of this year’s garden.

I shop every Saturday at the Farmers’ Market, where I try to get and plan the majority of my meals around. I also stock up on produce during the peak seasons to preserve for the winter. I preserve through hot bath canning method, blanching,  freezing and drying.

I buy Kentucky flour from a local store, so that I can make bread, pizza dough, pie crust, cookies, desserts and homemade pancake/waffle mixes.

Veggie Skillet (includes: onion, potato, kale and eggs)

Our meals consist of a heavy vegetarian diet, I personally feel that it balances out of all the good things to eat. I try to purchase mainly local meat, and from the grocery store organic meats. Another reason we eat a lot of vegetarian meals is because of the cost to purchase organic meat.

The majority of our meals are made from scratch after work. I try to plan leftovers for lunches over the next couples days and for a dinner, if there is enough. It is challenging to make this effort everyday with the world around me throwing convenient food at me. But this is something that is key to making healthy food for my family. And we may not eat until 6:30-7:00 o'clock some nights, but its worth the wait.

Homemade Pizza (includes: homemade dough, tomato sauce, red pepper, dried tomato, spinach, sausage and cheese)

 

Now I’ve watched many more documentaries that help keep me focused on the little things I can do that will make a big difference in my family’s diet. Both of my kids are not picky eaters. Both drink water and some milk with very little or no soda or juice. My step daughter’s diet varies from our, because she is at her mom’s house half of the time.

Vegetarian Quesadilla (includes: cheese, black beans, corn, red pepper, onion and tomato)

Now we do have things in our house that are not “healthy”, these are mainly for the kids and my husband. In our pantry you’ll find potato chips, Dortios (at times), little Debbie snacks and some sugary cereal. We are a work in progress.

I try to always keep in my mind a quote from one of Michael Pollen’s books, “You can eat all the junk food you want as long as you made is from scratch.”

Preserving Summer, Part 1

Summer is in full stream. Garden is growing and producing goodness everyday. During my evening walk through I see new things growing and ripening.

While the it takes care of itself, and I work on planning our fall garden. Every weekend is full of trying to preserve the taste, flavors and produce of the summer season. My yellow pear tomato and grape tomato plants are in abundance, so I've been oven roasting them. Since I don't yet have a dehydrator, I have to use the oven in between my bread baking schedule.

Oven drying small tomatoes are simple, I got this recipe from one of my favorite blogs, www.digthischick.net. Preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with oil, then slice all the little tomatoes in half. Placing them on the sheet slice side up, then drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

 Then place in the oven for three hours, around that time start checking the tomatoes. You want them to be dried and leathery, so they may need to cook longer depending on their size.

Then you can store them in an air tight container or place in zip lock bag and toss into the freezer. During the winter pull them out and add to soups, chili or pizza.

Now freezing is another busy task I take on pretty much each weekend. I've been keeping busy with green beans and corn from the farmers market. Now you can find blanching times every where on the internet. I usually turn to pickyourown.org. Each vegetable has there own required blanch time. So you cook them for the time necessary then immediately put the produce into ice cold water, this stops the cooking process.

Then place them into the a zip lock bag, now for a great trick I learned at a 15Thousand Farmers. Once the veggies are in the bag, zip it almost close, stick a straw into the corner. Then suck the air out of the bag, creating a vacuum seal.

With these little things done here and there, my family will be able to enjoy this bounty of summer during the chilliness of winter.