When I was a kid, every summer my family would make the long drive from Colorado to Iowa to visit my grandparents. The endless fields of corn stalks were a familiar background to our annual visits. My grandparents had long retired from farming at that point but we spent summers visiting farms owned by their friends and endlessly fascinated by the towering stalks. There was always an excess of corn on the cob with every meal and my younger sister and I were responsible for shucking the leaves and golden silk threads off of each ear into a paper bag. We’d snap the cobs in half and drop them into salted, boiling water until they plumped up with a mosaic of bright yellow and creamy white kernels. Corn on the cob has always been one of my favorite sides.
There is nothing like sweet, fresh Iowa corn but it’s pretty dang close in the PNW! I want to savor every last bit of this summer treat so leftover corn cobs are saved in the freezer to use for scrap stock. You can throw them in with your onions, onion skins, garlic, pepper pieces, and maybe a carrot or two (or whatever else you’ve got on hand.) Corn cobs add a subtle sweetness to vegetable stock and it’s a great way to get every last bit of summer flavor of out your produce!
Tell me how y’all enjoy your corn on the cob! Everyone does it a little differently and I’m sure I’m not the only one who loves a nostalgic side. #closedloopcooking