Corn!

Two weeks ago I froze 100 ears of corn. It was then that I realized if I kept going with all of my plans and my husband does bring home a deer I will have no.more.room. So when I got my second batch of 100 ears I decided to can it. Corn requires the use of a pressure canner. I have had a pressure canner, um rather 3 of them for many years. My husband grew up helping his mom can and is the expert around here. He taught me all I know about pressure canners. To me they seemed a bit scary with all that pressure built up inside! But they are really very simple to use. I just make sure to be careful and follow the directions.

So, to start shuck, wash and remove all the silk from the ears. This is a great job for children and all of mine do this for me. It goes so fast with all of those hands working  together.  Next you will want to cut all of the kernels off of the ears. I use my husband's fillet knife and it makes short work of each ear.I learned this trick from my friend Sharmin, set your ear up in a Bundt pan, then all the kernels will fall into the pan and there is less mess and it's easier to hold the ear and get a close cut.Here is all of my corn cut. Next you will want to fill your warm clean jars with corn. Do not shake or press down! Then fill with boiling water leaving about 1 inch of space.Wipe rims to ensure a good seal then secure lids and rings. I forgot to take picture of some of the steps, I got so into my project! hile I get the jars ready I fill the pressure canner with a couple of inches of water and start it to simmer. Then I slowly lover the jars into the hot water. I would recommend reading and following the directions on your own canner to be safe!  I wrap a towel around the jars to keep them from clanking together. I don't know if this is necessary or not but my husband's mother did it so I do it too.  Then tighten the lid and wait for the valve to pop up as you can see in the picture below. Corn needs 10 pounds pressure so I wait for it to reach that, then I start timing for 85 minutes. when it is done turn off the burner and wait until the valve goes back down. You can now take out your jars of corn.It take about three hours for batch and I ran four. It takes time but I was able to do things like clean the kitchen, prep some furniture for painting, and read a book while waiting so it seemed so much easer than blanching and freezing. It looks so pretty sitting on the shelf and I don't have to worry about loosing it if my freezer decides to quit.