Firsts In Fruitland

Fruitland is called that for a reason!  All summer long, there are fruit stands filled with lots of yummy produce, in fact I rarely had to visit the Walmart all summer, which makes me happy!  People we know grow corn and sold it for $2 a dozen when we picked our own.  I thought that it would be fun to go out and pick it, but it turns out that picking corn is not fun.  We all came out itchy and I was afraid that I would lose a child out in the field.  Luckily no one got lost and we picked 10 dozen ears, WOW!  All the ladies around here know so much about how to preserve all the bounty that surrounds this area and they were eager to teach me a new skill.  I knew that I could not use 10 dozen ears of corn, nor did I want to figure out what to do with all that corn by myself, so I called up my sister Lisa and she came and helped me get the corn ready so we could freeze it.  It was more time consuming than I ever thought.  We did enjoy lots of corn for dinner all week long, and have a freezer full for later!  

 Kara found this corn that had a weird growth.

 I also was taught how to can peaches and pears.  They looked so good in the jars.  The other day I got a jar of peaches down from the cupboard to open and noticed they are starting to brown, so I don't know what I did wrong.  They sealed correctly and still taste good even discolored and we haven't gotten sick yet.  I'm not sure if home canning is for me, it really takes a long time to can and makes a disastrous kitchen mess!