Homemade Friday: Corn! And Beans! And Salsa!

In hindsight I was ridiculously unprepared.

In the spring my dad planted a whole bunch of corn, enough for my sister’s family, my family, and my parents.  At least.

I wasn’t able to help much with the care of the corn so I guess I didn’t fully comprehend how much was there.  So when my dad said it was ready and we needed to come pick it, I went, but didn’t actually take anything to put the corn in.

The corn harvest coincided with Dad’s birthday so we had a nice lunch (corn!) before braving the heat and scratchy plants.  They’d invited Dad’s sisters to come, too.  It’s all about sharing the (corn!) wealth, really.

Dad drove his truck around back and we all picked buckets or bags full, then dumped them in the back of the truck until it was almost to the top of the bed.  (It’s a small truck, but still – lots of corn.)  

When it came time to take our share home I realized that unless I wanted it all rolling around in the back of the hatch I needed some grocery bags.  I filled up about 10 bags full, I think.  And a couple of bags of green beans, too.  Naturally.

Sunday night, when we got home and put the kids in bed, Chris and I did shuck a couple of bags but I didn’t want to mess with them that night.  I was beat.  We’d been swimming and were not in the mood for all that work.  So I left shucked corn in the bags for the next day.  And the next.  And the one after that, too.

I’m really not that excited about corn anymore. 

Any spare moment I had was spent shucking or cutting it off the cob or heating it up or cooling it down or bagging it.

And it just wouldn’t end.  (I am not my mother, who stayed up until after midnight two nights in a row to get all of theirs put up, then got up super-early in the morning to drive an hour to work.  Nope, not my mother.)

But finally it was finished.  Or so I thought.  Until I found a bag I’d missed in the bottom of our refrigerator drawer.  That one went to some of Chris’ family.   I’d already given up by that point.

But now we have about 15 quart bags of corn in the freezer, which is a nice feeling, and plenty for us for the coming year.  I’m thinking about corn chowder.  Lots and lots of corn chowder …

In addition to that I have some really bad zucchini and corn salsa that I spent HOURS cutting up vegetables for.  Well, I guess it’s not awful, but it tastes more like a relish than salsa, and I really don’t like relish.  I should have thought about that before I made 12 pints of the stuff.  Anybody want some?

And, in spite of all that, I still had to do something with the remaining green beans.  I mean the ones that I didn’t let mold in the bag.  Because I was too busy putting up corn to worry about beans.  I blanched some and froze them in bags, only getting about 4 or 5 of those.  But the rest I made into 8 pints of dilly beans.  I haven’t opened any yet, but I think those will be good.

I hope. 

Because it sucks to work so long and hard on something and not like the outcome.

Stupid corn relish.