Yesterday I harvested my last crop of the year, sweetcorn. I didn’t think it had done too well, but when I came to pick it, things weren’t as bad as I had feared.

I ended up with several bags of kernels in the freezer, plus we had 4 whole cobs, with lashings of butter for our lunch. But oh my word, what a messy job it is to blanch and freeze 32 corn on the cobs.

Blanch the whole cob for 4 minutes, then comes the fun part, getting the individual kernels off. In the early years I tried to do this with as little damage to them as possible, but soon learnt that life is too short to take that approach.

Now it’s every man for himself as I slice them off with a big, sharp knife. White juice spurts everywhere, and the ‘silks’ end up all over the floor. Basically, I have to clean the kitchen when I’m done.

I could freeze them whole, but we don’t tend to eat them whole as a rule, plus the fact I don’t have the room in my freezer for 32 whole cobs, so I’m afraid I’m stuck with this method.

Finally, Happy Birthday to my sister who is 54 years old today.