Ya’ll, I am quite worried about the corn this year. The dry hot weather is going screw everything up. And I know this because my friend,  Bobbie Cox, told me so as she handed me a plastic grocery bag full of peaches and cream corn from her garden. “This is going to be it, Catherine,” she said sadly. “It’s too dang hot and dry. The corn’s burning up.”

This is it? It’s only the end of June and there will be no more corn? I pour myself a gin and tonic. I need a drink. Oh, I’m sure somebody in Minnesota or somewhere like that will take pity on us and send us some of that nasty yellow corn. And we’ll just shut our eyes and eat it. Because beggars can’t be choosers. But here in the South we prefer either Silver Queen or Peaches and Cream. That Bobbie Cox is a good girl. She probably could have sold that corn for $10 an ear, but she gifted it to me for absolutely nothing.

So, here is what I do with corn. First, obviously, you shuck it. If you have cats, you need to be careful here because cats absolutely love to eat the corn husks and then throw them back up all over the carpet you just had cleaned. Then get a large bowl and a small bowl that you can turn upside down and nest in the large bowl. Sharpen your knife, stand a cob on the small bowl and slice the kernels off. After you have got every last kernel,   scrape the knife against the cob to get the corn milk out.

Most of the corn goes into freezer bags and right into the freezer. It will keep for up to six months so you can have a fresh corn fix in the middle of December. But the first fresh batch goes into skillet corn. There are many variations of skillet corn, but I am a purist in this regard. All I do is melt a goodly amount of butter in the skillet and add the corn, salt and pepper. Saute it for only a few minutes. It is the pure essence of summer, a summer that appears to be heading for a corn disaster. I am bereft. Perhaps I will have another gin and tonic.

4 Comments

  1. Nikki Baker
    Nikki BakerReply
    July 2, 2012 at 4:04 pm

    There aren’t a lot of things I miss about NY but sweet corn is one of them. I lived rural upstate so we would just walk over to the neighbor’s farm to pick up our corn and maple syrup. I agree – that yellow corn is icky.

  2. Betsy
    BetsyReply
    July 2, 2012 at 6:23 pm

    My daddy, brother and Granny make it with bacon grease, not butter. Bacon makes everything better.

  3. Fran Osteen
    Fran OsteenReply
    July 8, 2012 at 5:09 pm

    Have you ever inverted a bundt cake pan to scrape the cobs? It works well for me. Also, how do you like the Shun knife?

  4. Catherine Mayhew
    Catherine MayhewReply
    July 9, 2012 at 9:42 am

    That’s a great idea. Love the Shun knife. It is one of my most expensive indulgences but it will last a lifetime.

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