Long Overdue: Corn, Pears, and Heirlooms

It has been way too long since my last entry, and I apologize.  Since I started work after summer break, life has become busy with schedules again.  To catch up readers on our big summer projects that finished out the summer season, I am sharing the preserving processes that we did for corn and pears.

My mom and I went to the Pumpkin Patch Farm on Sauvie’s Island to pick up our corn.  We bought 200 ears of their “peaches and cream” corn, and it is the most amazing corn we have ever had.  (They are carrying it through fall if you want to see for yourself.)  At 5/$1, that means we each paid $20, and we did not have to throw out a single cob...pretty great considering all of the things that you could find when you pull back those husks.  

My mom, my grandma, my sister and I all husked the corn.

We then placed the whole cobs into boiling water for about five minutes.

We cut all of the kernels off of the cobs.  I found this tip using the bundt pan from a Martha Stewart magazine.  You balance the cob on the center part of the pan and use a knife to cut off all of the kernels, which fall right into the pan.  It makes clean-up very easy.

We filled vacuum bags with 2 cups of corn per bag and sealed them off.  The bags then went into the freezer.  We ended up with 80 bags total.  Broken down into price per bag, it is 50 cents a piece for two cups of sweet, juicy, farm-to-table corn...that’s a win in my book.  (200 ears of corn, 5/$1= $40.  $40 divided by 80 bags= 50 cents/bag.) 

We also picked up pears while we were on Sauvie’s Island.  We bought green Bartlett pears at $8 for a 20 pound box.  We each bought three boxes, which was a total of 60 pounds and $24.  The pears had to ripen for about a week, so we set them outside on my grandma’s deck on newspaper.  

When they were ripe, we started by peeling and coring each pear.  The fresh pears were packed into clean quart size mason jars, which already had a fresh orange slice at the bottom.  If you haven’t ever canned pears with a thin slice of orange, I highly recommend it- it adds a great flavor.

We poured a boiling hot mixture of syrup into each jar, which was 2 cups of sugar to 4 cups of water.  You could probably cut the sugar in half if you wanted to.  We left one inch of headspace.  Once the jars were topped with new, sterile lids and rings, they were processed in a water bath for 20 minutes per batch. 

We ended our pear day with 40 quarts of pears.  Here’s the price breakdown: 60 pounds of pears at $48, divided by 40 quarts= $1.20 per quart.  Each quart jar held about 6 large pears, so the jars last more than just one sitting...unless you are my husband who had never had home-canned pears...

After a busy season of canning, I ran out of room in my kitchen pantry for all of our jars.  As a solution, I cleared out a small hallway closet that sits right next to our kitchen, which we really didn’t use.  I was able to fill it with all of our jars and my food storage buckets (brown rice, black beans, rolled oats, bread flour) for a clean, organized pantry space that stays cool and dry.   

I will leave you with a couple photos of some treasures I have recently added to our home.  I decided to get rid of a lot of items in my kitchen that don’t really reflect my taste.  My husband and I are doing a fundraising garage sale for a non-profit organization, so it was great motivation to get rid of all sorts of things...and the kitchen took a nice, big hit.  The donated goods were mostly serving pieces, mixing bowls, and items that were purchased new from a store.  If you know me at all, you know that I love things that tell a story, and that are not necessarily new, but rather vintage.  I decided to jump on the pyrex bandwagon to replace the mixing bowls that we donated, and the pattern I chose is called “Butterprint.”  I am only going to collect a set of mixing bowls and a couple refrigerator dishes with lids.  Here is the start to my collection:

I was also fortunate enough to be given sets of silver flatware from both my family and my husband’s family when we got married.  (My in-laws know the way to my heart!)  I pulled these beauties out of retirement last month, polished them up, and replaced our flatware from Ikea with pieces that remind us of our families...and did I mention they are beautiful?  What a treat it was last month when my aunt came over for dinner and realized that the very fork she was eating with belonged to her mother (my grandma) who passed away in 1985.  She said she probably ate with that very fork a hundred times as a little girl.

What vintage items do you have in your home?  How were your summer preserving adventures?  Have you started anything for Fall yet?  I’d love to hear.  Thank you so much for reading.