The problem with this time of year is time, or the lack or it. There is so much to do, its a shame you can’t work part time over the summer to give enough time to do everything needed both down at the allotment and with the produce you bring back!
Some things just need a wash and serving up… after you’ve created tomato men with them, of course…….
Others take a little more effort. Sweetcorn needs only minimal ‘processing’, but is well worth the effort. The thing with with sweetcorn is time, as soon as you pick them from the plant the clock starts ticking and you need to get them cooked, because as time goes by the sugar turns to starch.
For this reason I am limiting the number I pick each time, so that I can get them processed as soon as possible. Obviously we will eat some the same day as corn on the cob, with butter melting over it, but most will probably be used to stock up the freezer.
Before leaving the allotment I strip the leaves from the corn, just so I can chuck it straight into the compost bin. One less job when I get home and less to bring back to the allotment (okay, so I’m a little bit lazy….)
Step one involves a sharp knife, to remove all those golden kernels from the cob, before plunging them into boiling water for a few minutes.
Finally drained and plunged into cold water and its ready to be weighed out into appropriate size bags and shoved into the freezer. Each bag is enough for the three of us – keeps it simple!
Of course there might have been a little quality testing along the way….
Other things I have brought back have taken a little longer to ‘process’. When I tidied up the flower border in the allotment, removing everything which had died back, I collected the seed heads and brought them home in a bag and left them in the greenhouse. This weekend it was just too hot to work outside, so instead I decided to get on and sort them out…. I wont lie – it took ages, but now I have a selection of envelopes containing a selection of seeds…
In amongst the mess was a mixture of calendula, sweetpeas, peas, beans and another flower seed which I have still to indentify…….
As a treat for all my hard work I rewarded myself by snaffling the yellow raspberries, just so I could finish off the last of a tub of double cream and a few meringues… well it would be rude not to!
2 thoughts on “From sweetcorn to sweetpeas…”
Kim McKinney
I’ve never heard of yellow raspberries!
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Kirstie
They are just as delicious as the red and, to be honest, neither had I until we took over a plot with them already growing there. To start with we were waiting for them to turn red, before realising they were in fact already ripe! 😏
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