A corny day in the country
About two weeks ago, one of our neighbors hosted a Corn Party. The objective was to prepare about 200 ears of corn for freezing and sharing, in addition to having a fun afternoon. Everyone dressed for the occasion in traditional corny hats.
She took her pickup truck right into the fields, where the corn was cut from the stalks into the truck and when she arrived, we shucked them into coolers. They were so fresh that the silk came right off.
Water was boiling in a couple of propane fired turkey friers and the guys blanched about a dozen at a time and then put them into coolers full of ice and water and after chiiling, shuttled them inside where we had stations set up to cut the kernels off the cob.
We paused for a lunch of turkey sausage Marsala sandwiches, beer, margaritas and corn milk ice cream.
Then we packed them into vacuum freezer bags on trays to freeze overnight and be pumped and sealed the following morning.
We forgot to count how many bags we froze but they'll taste great this winter.
Do you do any canning with a group?
This post was edited by ruthanna on Sun, Sep 8, 13 at 20:02
Wow. How cool is that! Great idea, not to mention looks like a great time! Love the different ways you prepared the corn!
That sounds like a really fun day that really accomplished a lot. I've never had the opportunity to do anything like that with a group, but it sounds like a great way to get some prep and preserving done.
That is a very good idea. The only group canning I've done is with my girls or grandkids, no one else seems interested.
Well, Lpink and I have canned together, but that's not really a group, LOL.
Annie
That sounds like a fun and delicious day. Years and years ago my mom and aunts would can together, and I'd be assigned a task or two, but I've never really done any group canning or freezing. I'm an anomaly I guess. My DH helps me quite a bit when I'm canning or freezing. He's a master at dismantling the tomato press and cleaning and re-assembling!
I once taught a group of young colleagues to can, we made Dilly Beans, but I suspect none of them ever tried it alone.
Enjoy the fruits of your labors!
OK, that's not really true, we did have Canning Camp at Sherry's house and there were a LOT of us there. KatieC and I took turns "instructing", LOL, but she's the expert. We canned peach chutney and Habanero Gold Jelly, and we ate a LOT. (grin)
Let's see, there was me, evil Jessica (who spent 5 days with me), compumom, riverrat, Sheshebop, Bunnyman, Larry Englehardt, KatieC, Mustangs, Booberry, Lakeguy, Maureen, Kathy and her hubs, Nancy.....that was definitely a group canning!
Annie
Annie, I remember that week and seeing the results on the forum. It looked like so much fun.
Back when I was working full-time, I often did my weekend cook-a-thons with a friend or two. We'd make meals for most of the following week and then split them so they could take theirs home. It took a much shorter time than when I did it by myself, even though we were making double or triple the quantity of food.
Ruthanna, Isn't great when productivity can be that much fun!
Yeah Annie, I was about to chime in on our Canning Camp at Sheshebop's house. That was great, wasn't it!
Corny, but fun.
I used to belong to a wine making group, and around this time of the year, we will have a wine bottling party.
You can imagine how the party get get out of hand.
dcarch
Dcarch, I am now channeling Lucille Ball. :)