Corn O' Plenty

I have always loved my grandma's fresh corn. It's just so much better than the stuff you get in the can, especially in the middle of winter! A few years ago I did freeze some corn myself but I only ended up with a few servings as I didn't realize how much it takes to get a decent supply of frozen corn. The past couple of summers I have failed/forgotten to get corn on the cob to freeze.

Today my trip to the farmer's market produced 2 dozen ears of corn and, lucky for me, I was able to get my grandma to come over and help me fix it up to freeze! :)

My great-grandma taught my grandma, so I felt like I was getting a lesson from a real pro today. She doesn't really have a "recipe," so I'll share the written instructions she sent me a few years ago; they are pretty much word for word what she kept telling me today!

"The way I do my freezer corn is the way that Grandma Hart taught me.  After cleaning the corn, cut off the cob and put in large heavy cooking pan.  Cover the corn with enough water to cook and let the water cook down some.  Add salt (don’t put too much salt because you can always add more after you taste it and see if you need more) and some margarine.  Depending on how large amount of corn you have, depends on the amount of margarine you use.  I use stick margarine and usually put at least ½ stick.  I also add sugar and again it depends on how much corn you have.  Then cook the corn until about done.  You can taste to see if you have enough salt, margarine and sugar, then add more according to your taste.  After it has cooked, let it cool completely, then put in quart size freezer bags.  The reason you need to add sugar is that when freezing, the natural sugar taste is diminished by freezing.  When you take it out of the freezer to have for a meal, you will put in a pan, heat and if it needs a little further cooking or adding of sugar etc. you can do it then.  Now, this sounds like a big process, but it really isn’t.  The hardest part is cleaning the corn and cutting it off the cob.  Once that is done, the rest is pretty easy."

We added about 1/4c sugar and 1/4 stick of butter to each batch. 

The secret she told me today isn't typed out above, but it's to scrape the cob one more time after you cut the corn off because that's where all the sweetness is in the corn. 

We ended up with 8 bags of corn to freeze from the 26 ears.  I'm hoping to make at least one more batch before the summer is out.