The going price at the market for corn in Vermont and New Hampshire is anywhere from 6 ears for $4 up to $1 per year – or $8-12 per dozen. As a kid, the teenagers in pickup trucks along the side of the road charged, at most, $2/dozen, and we could often talk them down to $1.50. In Madison, I could buy a bakers dozen ears (13×13) from a local sweet corn farm, and they’d even haul the bags to my car for $3.50/dozen, and often not charge me for the full Baker’s gross. The most offensive price in the Midwest for an ear of sweet corn is at the Sun Prairie Corn Festival where FIBs* and Cheeseheads get overcharged for sweet corn- $2/ear including salt and butter. Last year, I got lucky and coaxed a kid to $5/dozen and complained to everybody around about the price of sweet corn.  So, paying $8 for a dozen ears of corn offends my Midwestern sensibilities. I was not going to pay $8 per dozen to freeze corn this year. 

We headed to upstate New York over Labor Day, where fertile soil and normal market pricing mechanisms conspire to produce cheap, high-quality sweet corn. I was determined to buy as much corn as I could haul back and put it into the freezer for the year. I accomplished my goal. $4 per dozen. A gross of corn (a dozen dozen), and we produced 43 zipper bags holding about 2 cups of corn each. Mission accomplished. 

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Thanks to Bauman’s Farm Market for the most wonderful (and well-priced) sweet corn.

Corn came in “bags” which was 4 dozen ears in a large brown paper bag. Pidi enjoyed traveling in the back seat on top of pillows with a comfy headrest of corn. Good dog!

I couldn’t wait to get home to eat an ear. I had this one as a snack while driving home.

We’re shucking the corn. Pidi tried to help but lacked thumbs. We shuck in the yard so we can hose away the corn silks. They get everywhere.

That pile of corn husks will do great in my compost pile.

Here’s the process of freezing corn: (R) I hang plastic all over the kitchen to catch the splatter from cutting corn off the cob. (L) Sam sautees the corn with butter (1 tbsp per 2 cups kernels), then spreads it on a sheet to cool. (C) We pack 2 cups per quart bag and lay them flat. The frozen bags make handy partitions in the chest freezer. The extra table is a sawing table the previous owners left in our garage.

A gross of corncobs is only slightly lighter than a gross of shucked corn. I used part of a cabbage leaf to top my jar of pickled corn.

We ended up with 43 bags (2 cups each) of frozen corn, 5 ears eaten on the cob, and a quart of pickled corn.