Do
you remember Aesop’s fable about THE ANT AND THE GRANSSHOPPER? I’m sure you do:), but just in case here it
is in a nutshell…
The
ant WORKED all summer storing up food while the grasshopper just PLAYED around. When winter came, the ant had
plenty of food and got fat & sassy (sorry…just my interpretation), but the
grasshopper (lazy little dude) got very hungry because he had no food.
Well,
if you lived in my house you would definitely have to learn to be an ANT! My husband grew up on a farm, and he believes
in gathering the harvest so you won’t go hungry come winter.
He
doesn’t farm anymore, but we recently made our annual trip to a nearby FARMER'S MARKET to buy some fresh vegetables…corn, butterbeans, and peas. And he grabbed a few tomatoes while he was
there….gotta have a fresh tomato and bacon sandwich on fresh, fresh bread now
and then or you’ll get kicked out of the south!
Corn is the hardest most time-consuming of all the vegetables we prepare for the
freezer. Thankfully, my DH does the bulk
of the work, but we do share. He shucks and silks the corn while fanning the gnats...
I wash the ears, he creams most of it
(although we do keep some on the cob)...
***To see his ingenious way of silking the corn (his own invention!), go HERE
then we work together to blanch it, bag
it up, and stand back and admire our handiwork.
We
also do the same thing with the butterbeans and peas. These are PINK EYE peas…and they are so, so
yummy! After years of standing over a
hot stove to blanch them, I finally discovered how to do it in the microwave and WOW! It makes the job soooo much
easier. We blanch the corn in the
microwave too.
It’s
a lot of work but what is it they say….
And when the cold days of winter come (and
they will), we’ll be thankful we were ANTS and not lazy GRASSHOPPERS.
And
in case you are interested in how to blanch corn in the microwave:
*Place
about 4 cups of creamed corn into a microwaveable dish (like Corning
Ware).
*Heat
on HIGH in the microwave for about 2 min.
*Stir
well.
*Heat
on HIGH another 2 min.
*Quickly
sit dish into sink of cold ice water; stir the corn to quickly cool it. ***
*Place
in freezer bags.
***DH
has “his” way of doing this. He pours
the hot corn into a large stainless steel bowl sitting in the ice water & stirs until it cools down.
So...are you an ANT or a GRASSHOPPER??? Do you store up food for the winter?
In memory of my father-in-law and the farm he (and my husband) loved
That's the way I was raised, put the veggies away for the winter. It's a lot of work but so worth it! We had corn on the cob for dinner last night, it was SO yummy! Enjoy your day dear friend, HUGS!
ReplyDeleteWe ate some of the fresh corn (on the cob) the other night and it was so, so sweet. It was SILVER KING...even sweeter than Silver Queen!
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DeleteMy days of doing that sort of work are LONG gone....my body would not allow me to work a garden or putting a lot of stuff up....thank goodness I am not like the grasshopper who apparently could not drive to the store.
ReplyDeletePam, you always make me laugh:) I'm sure there will come a day when I'll not be the industrious ant that I try to be! My gransshopper days are coming.
DeleteWe are grasshoppers here at my house. : )
ReplyDeleteOh, it's OK to be a grasshopper sometimes:)and we certainly are around here at times...But when it comes to food, my DH becomes industrious:)
DeleteGee, I wish I had the energy to be an ant. I do love fresh vegies even if they are frozen. Your hubby's invention for cleaning the corn silk is great! I love to eat fresh corn on the cob when it is in season, but don't eat much corn the rest of the year. Digestive issues... but I enjoyed this post and would love to come eat with you this winter! LOL>
ReplyDeletePamela, you are invited anytime:)
DeleteI do store food for use all year but I did corn once and swore I would never do all that work again..so I just buy the frozen stuff! I love canning applesauce, carrots, tomatoes and also making jams. I'm an ant as long as I can supplement with some store bought stuff!
ReplyDeleteYaya, I've never "canned" but remember going with my mama to the cannery to can tomatoes, beans, etc. She also made jellies, pickles, etc. but I've never been THAT big of an ant:)
ReplyDelete