I learned something canning

As the old saying goes, ya never get too old to learn something. Some of our sweet corn was ready so Amoy and I went and picked most of it. This year I raised Golden Bantam which is classified as a normal sweet corn. In past years we have grown SE or sugar enhanced and SS which is super sweet varieties.  I decided this year to can most of my sweet corn to save on freezer space. When the sugar enhanced or super sweet sweet corn is canned, the length of time in the pressure canner caramelizes the sugars in the corn and makes it brownish in color. Where as the normal sweet corn varieties do not turn dark. I proved this fact to myself today when I canned some of the golden bantam from this year.

The jar on the left is the sugar enhanced sweet corn and the many on the right are the normal sweet corn. So for information sake, if ya don't want your corn to be dark if you choose to can it, then stick with a normal sweet corn. All the seed catalogs will tell you the difference. I did end up with 26 pints of canned corn today.
Another thing I learned today while picking this Golden Bantam corn. We usually order from R H Shumway which is kinda a commercial seed production company. As far as I am concerned they do not do very well with quality control on their seeds. As they mass produce both heirloom and hybrid varieties of seed, most of the open pollinated seeds that I have gotten from them is not consistent with the variety that I have ordered which tells me that they are cross pollinated.  Of all the ears of corn I picked today, maybe 2% of the ears even resemble the open pollinated Golden Bantam in characteristic. They say hind sight is 20/20, well I agree. I ordered white half runner beans from the same company and was not happy with the end result. The pods got tough before the bean inside developed which is not like white half runners. From now on I will only order from a reputable heirloom seed company or locate some good seed stock locally. OK I am off my soapbox now.
We went back to the garden late this evening and picked about a bushel of the pink eye purple hull peas. I guess it will be my job to shell those tomorrow. We did get enough cukes to make 4 quarts and 1 pint of kosher dill pickles. Also cut some more cabbage that I will work up tomorrow. The carrots are still in the ground, we did pull another half bushel or so of those. Amoy is taking some fresh veggies home with her. After all she has helped me all day with the picking and cleaning and canning of all this stuff. Jason took a bucket of purple hull peas home with him. So hopefully he sat on his porch and watched a movie on his computer and shelled peas. I can only hope.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella