preserving your corn harvest

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Note: This is a post from last year that somehow didn’t make it to being posted.  I found it as I was looking for a recipe and thought you might still enjoy it.

Although we`re nearing the end of summer, the garden is still in full swing, and keeping me busy harvesting  zucchini, beans, and of course corn.  In the past, my easy out was always to freeze them, but since going off-grid we are down to one freezer, and it’s pretty full already.  So what was a girl to do. Well what did they do before they had the wonder of freezers?  They pickled and dehydrated their harvest.  But although we have been turning out lots of lemony dill pickles, and I could have pickled my beans and corn, I wanted something more versatile.  So although I have dehydrated plenty of tomatoes, I had never dried beans or corn, but how hard could it be?  The only challenge I found being off-grid was to get them dried before I ran out of power.  The solution was, start first thing in the morning and dehydrate on a sunny day while the power was high.  Other than that I found it was no more work than freezing really.  I blanched the corn for 4- 5 minutes, just like I would if I were to freeze it,

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then I used my handy corn cutter, I have tried many and this was the only one I liked, if you don`t have one just use a knife and be careful!

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Instead of throwing it in freezer bags, I spread it out evenly in a single layer on my dehydrator trays turned it on at 135 degrees F. and walked away.  It took about 9 – 10 hours to dry completely (it will depend on the humidity of course).

When it was done I used my handy Food Saver jar sealer,

I think I got my food saver at walmart

here is a great video on how to do it

 

and now I have jars of corn tucked away in the cupboard for those blustery days of winter.

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2 thoughts on “preserving your corn harvest

  1. I like this idea. can you re hydrate the corn to eat it as you would if it was frozen and can you use it to make corn bread?

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