Top 10 Reasons I LOVE July!

Everyone has reasons why they like or dislike something. There are lots of reasons why I love summer, but here are the top 10 reasons why July is one of my favorite months.
10. - It's the only month of the year with NO school days
9. - Thunderstorms
8. - Football/cheer practice starts, signaling the beginning of my favorite season - football season!
7. - Long days filled with lots of sunshine
6. - Trips to the pool with my kids
5. - Picking berries
4. - The hot hot days
3. - My brother's birthday
2. - It never ever snows!
1. - Farmers' Markets are loaded with the first of summer's bounty

Farm market fare - I got the peppers and cabbage at a market about 3 miles from my house and the zucchini and pickles from a market about 6 miles from my house in the other direction.

One of the reasons why I love where I live is the availability of fresh produce in the summer. Within a 10 mile radius of my house, there are at least a dozen farm markets. Some are larger with greenhouses and pick-your-own opportunities, and others are little tents along the road at the front of the family farm. Also within that area is the largest weekly open-air market in the entire universe. I love to look at the rows of vegetables lined up for inspection. Nothing tastes as good as vegetables picked early in the morning on the day you put the on your table.
Recently, I stopped at a local market - reported to have the very best sweet corn in the area.  It was still before lunchtime, but I got the last dozen and a half ears of corn they had for the day. Turns out, it was the last 18 ears they were gonna have for a week. An excessively wet Spring put a wrench in their planting.

Summer love - my 18 beautiful ears of corn

Since Big D could eat corn at every meal, I decided I wanted to put up corn this summer so we can enjoy the freshness all winter.  When I was a kid, my mom froze corn. I remember sitting beside her as she sliced the kernels off the cobs, reaching over to grab a rectangle of the juicy yellow pearls as they dropped onto the tray. I also remember the excitement of getting a package of that frozen corn out of our freezer in the middle of winter, anticipating that just picked taste.

No fancy gadgets needed, just a really sharp thin knife. I still like eating the rectangles of corn!

Because that's how my mom did it, and because I don't have a pressure canner, I also froze my corn. But, instead of using bags like my mom did, I used these really cool reusable freezer containers Ball makes. I got four beautiful pints of corn out of my 18 ears.
This was so easy, I think I'll be visiting a local farm soon to get a bushel of corn!