Go to your local farmers’ market. Do it this week before it’s too late; the season will be over before you know it. Make it happen, grab several ears of corn, and process them. It’s just too easy not to do it. A little bit of effort provides you with delicious local corn throughout the year.

Here’s what I do: I shuck the corn, discard the husks, and wipe away the silk. Then, using a large, sharp knife, I cut the kernels off the cobs, making sure to cut as close to the cob as possible without cutting too deep; you don’t want hard bits of cob in with the kernels.

You could stop there, bag and freeze the kernels, and be done. However, I add a couple more steps to preserve even more corn flavor.

First, using the back side of the same large knife, I scrape the cobs, releasing the germ and some corn pulp that I will add to soup or risotto for a deeper corn flavor.

The other thing that I do is bag and freeze the cobs; I will use them to make the corn stock that I will use for soup and risotto.

Another thing that I have done in the past is dry the cobs and use them in my smoker, adding a nice sweet smoke flavor to whatever I am smoking; this works best with fish and pork.

At EVOO, we did this every summer to smoke bluefish for our very popular Cob Smoked Bluefish Fillet with Corn Risotto, Grilled Zucchini, Tomato-Basil Relish and Spiced Popcorn.

Keep in mind that when the local corn season ends, Za’s very popular Corn Za will also be done until sometime next July. Get it while you can!