Sprouting...

some beans!

I saw this post over at Antiquity Oaks and it made me curious.  So, I decided to try growing some of my own bean sprouts.  I'm sure I could have gone a tiny bit cheaper or more low tech.  I was at Whole Foods anyway and saw that they had the sprouting jar right by the sprouting beans/seeds, so I just went ahead and bought the jar.  It's kinda big, I think...but I've never done this before.  I started soaking my beans yesterday around 5 p.m.  I meant to take the soaking water off before I went to bed, but I forgot.  So, they soaked all night.  I rinsed them this morning and just now when I got home from school.

I'm just hoping they don't go bad or anything while I am sprouting them.  The bean package said something about adding some citric something powder (I think...and I'm not getting up to look at the package) to prevent spoilage.  Deborah at Antiquity Oaks didn't mention it in her post, so I figure I don't really need it.  I just put it up to them trying to sell me one more of their products.

I think they should be ready for eating by the end of the week! Yummm! (well, provided they don't spoil)

 

Getting Back to my Ears...well, Roots?

Yesterday, I drove down to my mom's in order to 'put up' some corn for the freezer. I'm not really sure what the correct way is to describe this process, so I used the 'put up' term even though I really think that refers more to canning.

I have mostly fond memories of canning, freezing, and pickling. Growing up, we had a huge garden and between my mom, my grandma and my aunt, I helped with the freezing and canning a lot. There really was no choice about helping. Any more, my mom doesn't do too much canning or freezing. I was excited to be able to do this again. Even though it is a lot of work, it is very rewarding to be able to do something like this, especially if you are lucky enough to have the space to actually grow the produce you are canning/freezing. Plus, I am actually learning the routine so that I could do it again on my own if necessary.

I was lucky enough to 1) get the corn for free (my cousin's father-in-law is a farmer) 2) my youngest brother went out and actually picked the corn for me 3) he had most of it shucked by the time I arrived.


I told them to leave a little for me to shuck since that is one of the jobs that I enjoy. These are some of the ears that I shucked, prior to actually being washed and such.


Once we cleaned and semi-cooked the corn it went right on this pan so that I could cut if off the cob. I made sure I brought my best, most favorite knife to do the cutting. (Though I didn't take a photo of it)


I love how the corn looks when it has been cut off the cob and it is in these really long pieces. I like to pick up the big "slices" and eat them in one bite. I did have to break the pieces up a bit so that they would go into the freezer bags more easily.


I ended up with 45 little bags of corn for my freezer. I think each bag probably has something like 1 cup to 1 1/2 cups of corn. Enough for my husband and I to have for a meal. I can't wait to eat some of it.