27 August 2010

Freezer corn = Dandelion wine

In his third novel, published in 1957, Ray Bradbury extolled the virtues of dandelion wine:
"Dandelion wine. The words were summer on the tongue.
The wine was summer caught and stoppered."
For our generation here in the Midwest, frozen sweet corn serves the same purpose. This morning when we went to our favorite local farm to get sweet corn, we heard the sad news that today's would be the last crop of the year.  So we got a couple dozen extra ears to freeze.

Here's the recipe, courtesy of Stoneman's family farm in Fitchburg, Wisconsin:
16 cups corn cut off raw with a sharp knife from about 20 ears of fresh corn.
3 cups water.
One half stick of butter.
3-4 tsp salt.

Combine all ingredients in a large kettle.  Bring to a boil and simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Cool and do NOT drain.  Package in Ziplock freezer bags.

Yield:  seven 2-cup packages.

The top photo shows the corn after I had shucked it - beautiful bicolor ears with the corn so fresh that it's sweet raw without cooking or adding butter.  It'll be frozen tonight and we'll save it to haul out when the first blizzard hits this winter.  After shovelling knee-deep snow in sub-zero wind chills, we'll come in to enjoy a taste of summer

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