I can remember it like it was yesterday…
I woke up to another humid Virginia summer morning and wandered across the oak grove from our house to NaNa and GaGa’s backyard. By the time I got there, everyone was already up — busy working away. They were taking on what seemed, to my 8-year-old mind, like the impossible task of preserving all the vegetables GaGa had grown.
Every chance I got, I’d follow him down to the garden — helping pull weeds or pick beans. I didn’t care what the job was, as long as I was spending time with him.
That particular morning, GaGa’s old truck was parked beside the woodshed, and it was overflowing with corn.
His truck was one of the coolest things I had ever seen — a 1976 Bicentennial Edition Dodge with a custom red, white, and blue paint job. It was completely decked out… from red shag carpet on the ceiling to intricately upholstered seats. When you saw that truck coming down the road, there was no mistaking who it belonged to.
Even now, I’ll see something that reminds me of that truck — and all the memories made riding around in it — and I catch myself wishing it was parked in my garage.
A Southern Summer Tradition
Summer tradition in the South dictated that when it was time to “put up” the bounty of the farm, everybody pitched in.
Family. Neighbors. Kids. Everyone had a role.
That day, it was the kids’ job to shuck every ear of corn and toss it into old bushel baskets so NaNa and the ladies could prepare it for freezing.
We’d sit out by the corn crib, shucking corn and playing with the baby kittens that roamed in and out of the crib and woodshed like they owned the place.
Inside, the real work was happening.
And what a process it was.
Every single strand of silk had to be removed before the corn went into a big boiling pot of water to blanch. One of the things I learned from NaNa was that plunging the corn into boiling water for just a few moments — then quickly cooling it in ice — would preserve the color, flavor, and texture before freezing.
She treated that process like sacred knowledge.
The Kitchen Assembly Line
Once the corn was blanched, NaNa would pull out an old paring knife with a hand-carved wooden handle — a knife that had belonged to her mother.
She’d sharpen it until the blade sparkled from ten feet away.
Truth be told, each lady usually brought her own favorite knife — and once they got to cutting, it sounded like a symphony of blades hitting cobs.
By that point, my ADHD had usually kicked in, and I’d wander into the kitchen looking for something new to do.
NaNa — always knowing how to make everyone feel important — would tell me I had the most important job of all:
Putting the corn into little plastic freezer bags and sealing them with black bread ties before they disappeared into one of the many freezers scattered around the farm for safekeeping.
After a week or two of work, we were guaranteed garden-fresh vegetables all year long.
The Taste of Childhood
There are days I wish I could still walk into the pantry and pull down a jar of green beans, canned tomatoes, or pickles for supper.
Sometimes, when I’m feeling sentimental and need a taste of my childhood, I’ll buy fresh green beans from the market and put them on the stove with new potatoes and a few strips of bacon.
That smell alone transports me right back to NaNa’s kitchen — the wood-fired stove going, and meals spread across the table that had been handmade from the flooring of the farmhouse where her father was born.
Food carries memory in a way nothing else can.
Thinking About Corn…
All that talk about putting up corn got me thinking about the many dishes NaNa would make throughout the year with what we froze.
And that feels like the perfect time to share one of my favorites.
Corn Pudding
Now this — this is comfort food.
I can remember sneaking a spoonful when NaNa wasn’t looking, swiping a taste right after it came out of the oven.
More often than not, it was so hot I had to spit it back out and wait for it to cool. You’d think I would’ve learned the first time… but it seemed to be a regular occurrence.
Corn pudding was also a staple dish the country church ladies would bring when they came to visit someone’s home.
But in true Southern fashion, if you flipped that glass baking dish over, you could always count on finding their name written in black marker on masking tape across the bottom.
I remember laughing out loud years later watching Sordid Lives when a character lifts a dish to check the name on the tape to see who brought the pie to the grieving family.
Because that’s real life in the South.
And of course, good manners dictate that when you return the dish…
You return it with something from your own kitchen inside.
Rosa Lee’s Corn Pudding
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Generously butter your baking dish.
- Place the corn kernels, eggs, half & half, sugar, butter, flour, baking powder, and salt in the blender. Blend until fairly smooth with a few pieces of corn visible.
- Add cinnamon and nutmeg and pulse the blender a couple times.
- Pour the custard into the buttered baking dish and bake on center oven rack for 40 to 45 minutes, or until set.
- Remove to a cooling rack and cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.
