Freezing & Cooking Sweet Corn

How to keep our hand-picked Nirvana sweet corn tasting like summer, whether you're eating it tonight or saving it for next winter.

Keeping fresh corn fresh

Sweet corn is at its best the day it's picked. As soon as an ear leaves the stalk, its natural sugars slowly start turning to starch, and warmth speeds that up. Nirvana is a supersweet variety, so it holds its sweetness much longer than old-fashioned sweet corn, and a couple of simple steps help a lot:

• Get it cold quickly. Put your corn in the refrigerator as soon as you get home. Don't leave it in a hot car.
• Keep the husks on and skip the plastic bags. Corn holds a lot of moisture, and sealing it in plastic traps that moisture. We've found it keeps best loose in the vegetable drawers of a fridge (our garage fridge is perfect), where it gets just the right amount of air flow.
• Enjoy it within about 10 days (it's at its very best in the first few), or freeze it to enjoy all year.

How to freeze sweet corn

Freezing is the easiest way to enjoy KiDZ Corn all year. The key step is blanching, a quick dip in boiling water that stops the natural enzymes that would otherwise make frozen corn lose its flavor, color and texture. Don't skip it.

Every summer our family turns a few hundred ears into a freezer full of sweet corn. With a few helpers it's a fun afternoon project. Here's exactly how we do it:

1. 

   1. Husk and wash

   Start with the freshest corn you can get, ideally picked that morning. Pull off the husks and silk, then give the ears a good wash. We use a big picnic cooler full of cold water as a washing tub. Many hands make this part fast.

2. 

   2. Blanch for 2 minutes

   Drop the whole ears into a big pot of boiling water for 2 minutes. We set up a couple of big pots on an outdoor propane burner so we can run batches back to back. Don't overload the pot, so the water comes back to a boil quickly.

3. 

   3. Cool fast

   Get the ears out of the hot water and into cold water right away to stop the cooking. Coolers are our secret weapon here too: a second big cooler full of cold water with the garden hose running keeps the water cold while batch after batch goes in. Leave the ears until they're cold all the way through, then drain.

4. 

   4. Cut the kernels off

   Stand each ear on end and slice down the sides with a sharp knife, cutting about two-thirds of the way into the kernels. Flexible cutting mats on top of sheet pans catch everything and make it easy to pour the kernels into a bowl.

5. 

   5. Bag, label and freeze

   Fill zip-top freezer bags (we use 3 cups per bag, just right for a family dinner), leaving about ½ inch of space at the top. Squeeze out the air, write the year on the bag, and lay the bags flat in the freezer so they freeze fast and stack neatly.

Our freezing day by the numbers: one afternoon, a pile of cobs taller than the kids, and 222 ears = 47 three-cup bags of sweet corn. That works out to roughly 7½ cups of kernels per dozen ears.

How much corn should I order for freezing?

As a rough guide, a dozen ears gives you about 6–8 cups of cut kernels, depending on ear size. On our last freezing day, 222 ears filled 47 three-cup bags. Planning a big freezing day? Place a pre-order or bulk order so we have it picked and ready for you.

How to cook fresh sweet corn

Our favorite way: 3 minutes, that's it

Bring a big pot of water to a rolling boil. Drop in the shucked, cleaned ears and cook for 3 minutes. That's all fresh Nirvana corn needs; any longer and you're just cooking out the sweetness.

Add some butter and salt if that's your game, then enjoy the fireworks exploding in your mouth with every bite.

Or just eat it fresh!

Really fresh Nirvana corn is so sweet and tender that lots of our customers (and the KiDZ) eat it raw, right off the cob. It's also great cut into salads and salsas.

Cooking frozen corn

Frozen kernels can go straight into a pot, skillet, soup or casserole with no thawing needed. Heat them just until hot, then add butter and salt.