Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Benny130 on September 13, 2021, 17:41
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Really good crop for the first tine and ive been picking for the last few days. Does anyone have an idea of how long the cobs will stay at there best? Or do i pick the all and try to store???
Thanks in advance
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Sweetcorn starts losing it's sweetness as soon as it's picked. It's best to blanch and freeze the cobs as soon as you can after picking.
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if you are using the cobs whole, eat them straight away.
You can store cobs for a few weeks by not removing their outer leaves. They store for a few weeks like this in an outdoor dark store.
Do not keep them in the fridge as they will deteriorate quickly and loose their sweetness.
I always freeze half my sweetcorn crop, just slicing off the kernels and straight into a freezer tub. Never found they need any blanching.
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Thanks for the answers. I was thinking that the test to check they are ready is to put a finger nail in and check for a milky juice. Which it is. But how long can I leave them on the plants and they will remian in the milky window for harvest....does that make sense??
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When sweetcorn is ready on the plant, would suggest not leaving it on the plant for too long, less than a week may just be ok.
The kernels soon become tough and inedible after about a week after they are at their prime picking time.
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We have quite a few cobs containing wrinkly kernals, does this mean they are not ready yet, or are on the way over ripeness? :mellow:
Cheers, Tony.
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On the way over, I think
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i think when they start looking wrinkly like the seed you planted they are going past best
we freeze ours whole complete cob we dont bother blanching they seem to keep well like this
good luck with yours [ours are swift same as last year very sweet].
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On the way over, I think
Yes. But, unless you are saving it for something else, you can feed the wildlife, or make parched corn with it when it becomes drier. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w3sIKrSO_s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w3sIKrSO_s)
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Sweetcorn starts losing it's sweetness as soon as it's picked. It's best to blanch and freeze the cobs as soon as you can after picking.
Although I live in Georgia now, I grew up in the US state of Indiana, which is truly "corn country". I always heard that if you grew corn at home, the best you could ever taste is to start the water boiling before going into the garden to pick it. I only did it that way once . . . the old saying was right! Don't over-cook it, a few minutes is all you need. If you have and outdoor grill, you can wrap in foil and cook on the grill, or fold the green husks back from the corn, remove the silk, dampen the husks with water and fold back around the ear before placing on the grill. Cooked in husk is my favorite!
Pick it when the milk stage test shows that it is ready, don't leave it on the plant too long. Enjoy what you can while it is fresh, indulge yourself! But if you are going to preserve it on the cob, yes, blanch it and prepare to freeze it. You can also cut from the cob and freeze that. Or home can it.
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or fold the green husks back from the corn, remove the silk, dampen the husks with water and fold back around the ear before placing on the grill. Cooked in husk is my favorite!
Sounds good.
Often read cooking in the husk in an old gardening book I have from the 1940s and a recipe book from the early 1950s.
Always thought about giving it a go.
We are not really lovers in our family of a barbecue, but might try it in my range oven grill or oven.
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On the way over, I think
Yes. But, unless you are saving it for something else, you can feed the wildlife, or make parched corn with it when it becomes drier. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w3sIKrSO_s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w3sIKrSO_s)
I have some multi-coloured flint corn growing this year, so am going to give this a go, assuming it ripens and goes hard before the summer runs out. I'm not sure if I will end up with parched corn or just popcorn. Ideally I wanted to parch it and make cornmeal, but we shall see :unsure: :lol:
It was a shared pack of seed I bought with a friend last year and never got around to sowing, but germinated fine this year. It has flowered after the rest of the sweetcorn on the allotments, but looks like it is doing something now. I have small cobs with tassels that are going brown.
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Well my multi colour corn ripened and was harvested.
I dried it in the dehydrator rather than parching it and now have my raw material for hm cornmeal :)