Putting Food By: part 3

Corn is a low-acid vegetable, meaning just that. There is very little acid in it, unlike tomatoes and fruits. Because of the low acid it is necessary to use a pressure cooker to can corn.

Pick the corn early the morning you are going to put it up. Only use what is at its peak of ripeness, not underripe nor overripe. Let the underripe corn stay on the stalk a little longer till it grows up. The overripe corn can be used for feed for the livestock, chickens and such as you have. You can also, after it is as ripe as it's going to get, let it dry, either on the stock or picked, shell it and grind it into cornmeal.

Have your canning jars washed, also the rings (or bands) and the flats. Put the jars in a big kettle of boiling water and just let them simmer. This sterilizes them. You can't be too clean and sterile when canning. Put the rings and flats in a smaller pan of water and put them on to sterilize. You could put the rings and flats in with the jars and avoid having one more pot taking up room on the cook stove but I've found it is much easier to fish those squirmy things out of a small space rather than a large one. They do tend to fight back.

Next you need to husk the corn, that is, remove all of those outer layers of leaves as well as the silk which is that hairy stuff growing out of the top of the ear of corn. If you've got kids there to help, this is a good job for them. However, if you are in mind of making tomalleys later on and will need the husks in whole pieces, you might want to do the husking your self. If you are saving the husk, just rinse them of in water and spread them out somewhere out of the way to dry. You might want to cover them with cheesecloth to help keep flies and such off of them. When they are completely dry package them up in something secure that bugs can't get into. They'll keep forever and if you get enough you can use them, also, to stuff any new mattresses you have planed to make over the winter.

After the corn is husked, wash it and make certain there are no bad spots that need to be cut out, or any lingering corn silks. Now comes the fun part: cutting the kernels off of the cob. Afterwards, you can toss the cobs out on the corncob pile to dry in the sun. If your cows and pigs won't eat them then they make good fuel for burning in the wood stove. As a little kid down on the farm it was my job every evening, rain, snow or blow, to fill a bushel basket with cobs for the kitchen stove. I hated that job and could stretch it out till way after dark, sittin' and boo-whoing on the cob pile. No one ever took pity on me though, at least not that I could see.

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