We do not use our freezers, over the longer term, for vegetables. The freezers are for meat, and in all honesty I would like to do away with that as well at some point, but for now, until I get into more large scale traditional meat preservation, it simply is what it is. We got a good bit of corn to process. Not thousands of ears, but 60 anyway, at one time.
Phoebe made pretty short work of shucking it, and I set to getting it all blanched.
Once it was blanched, I let the cobs cool down to where I could handle them by hand, and split them lengthwise.
Then we layered up the dehydrator. I set it on high fan at 125 degrees.
This is how it looks at 24 hours.
And this is how it looks at 30 hours. Completely dry, and the entire kernel comes fairly easily off of the cob.
That is what it looks like at this point. We pack it into quart containers and just put it on a shelf. A dozen ears pretty much gave us a quart of dried kernels. Keeps pretty much forever so long as you do not let moisture at it, and it plumps back up and tastes like fresh frozen corn when you add it to soups, stews and chili in the winter. Saves on freezer space too. Only downside to it is that it is not a heat and eat food now. It does take some time in boiling water for it to return to its prior condition, but the advantage of not dealing with it taking up freezer space, or a lot more shelf space if pressure canned, is worth it.
