Literacy awareness is a topic worth reminding ourselves of often. As our world or life situation changes, all of us find ourselves feeling inadequate with our reading and/or writing skills. I can sure relate to that when trying to learn how to run a computer.
We need to be sure everyone can understand what they are reading. It can be a life or death situation if you misread the label on a medicine bottle or aren’t able to read safety instructions at a workplace or to read road signs properly. We need to be aware of others around us who need help reading, whether it is in our family, at the grocery store or where we work.
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Family Literacy Day is a national awareness initiative, held annually since 1999, on Jan. 27 to promote reading and other literacy-related initiatives as a family activity.
Maintaining good literacy and learning skills is important at any stage in life. Developing early reading and writing skills helps children learn good communication skills later in life, and will contribute to their chances for success.
Studies show that literacy skills are like muscles – the more you use them, the stronger they become. To maintain good literacy skills, one must use them regularly.
As you age, your literacy skills can actually decrease if not used often enough. It’s called the “use it or lose it” principle. So, reinforcing reading and writing as a family activity helps people of all ages.
The word illiteracy is no longer used in literacy circles, as it represents only a small portion of the Canadian population, less than four percent.
Low literacy skills is the term now used to represent the five million adult Canadians (approximately 22 percent of the population) who have serious problems with reading, writing and math. These are non-readers who have serious difficulty with any printed material.
Literacy skills vary from region to region. Generally there are more Canadians with higher literacy skills in the western provinces, and a large numbers of Canadians with lower literacy skills in the eastern provinces.
Hundreds of activities for Family Literacy Day are spearheaded by literacy providers and local sponsors across the country.
These include fund-raisers, book drives, children’s reading circles and literacy-themed games and contests.
To celebrate Family Literacy Day:
- Go to the library.
- Read to your child.
- Create a special cozy reading place for your children and their books – their own library.
- Write a letter or story.
- Give your teens books, newspaper articles and magazines about things that interest them – music, TV, movies and computers.
- Ask your kids to help you make a shopping list.
- Read a recipe with your child and then cook up a storm.
- Create a kit, if traveling, with books, newspapers, magazines, pencils, paper. Learn to make up songs and to read maps and road signs along the way.
In the community you can help organize activities such as:
- A teddy bear’s picnic where children are invited to bring their favorite stuffed animal and listen to a favorite children’s story. Picnic treats can be served on blankets indoors.
- For adults, create a tearoom/rest area with reading material in an unusual location.
- Develop a community book club or pen pal club for kids or adults.
- Ask your local newspaper to sponsor a short story contest.
- Call your local radio station, TV station or newspaper asking them to make people aware of Family Literacy Day, and any special literacy events taking place.
To get more information on literacy issues, contact your local literacy organization or ABC Canada Literacy Foundation, the charitable organization responsible for the co-ordination of this initiative across Canada.
Call 800-303-1004 or visit the website at www.abc-canada.org. Look under “learn” in the yellow pages to contact a literacy organization near you.
Freezing corn
Dear TEAM: We grow Peaches and Cream corn and this year we cut some off the cob and froze it. Some we froze on the cob with no husk. We did not blanch in either case. The cut corn, after cooking, is almost tasteless and the corn on the cob has taste but a slightly off flavor. Should we have blanched it first in both cases or is this the wrong type of corn for freezing? If it should have been blanched, what does this do and should all vegetables be blanched? We both love cream corn. Do you know how to make it? Any special variety? – C. & J. N., Stalwart, Sask.
Dear C. & J. N.: Corn varieties can be categorized by their natural sweetness as normal sugar, sugar enhanced and super sweet. Super sweet contains double the amount of sugar that corn normally has, while sugar enhanced is in between.
Because of their sweetness, the best type of corn for freezing is the super sweet, which includes Kandy King, Honey’N Pearl, Hybrid Early Extra Sweet and Hybrid Northern Extra Sweet. Seed catalogues often list the sweetness of each corn.
Peaches and Cream corn is a sugar enhanced corn with less sweetness than the super sweet varieties. It is OK for freezing, but for a sweeter taste you might prefer to try a super sweet variety.
All varieties of corn will begin to lose sweetness as soon as they are harvested. The process is called respiration, in which the sugar converts to starch. Respiration happens faster at higher temperatures.
If the corn is stored for a long period of time or is stored at high temperatures, the corn will lose its sweetness faster.
To slow respiration, pick the corn when it is cool outside or remove the heat as soon as possible after harvesting by refrigeration.
Another solution to keeping corn sweet is to use the super sweet varieties because they have more sugar to start with. Until corn is blanched, it will continue to lose sweetness.
Yes, all vegetables should be blanched. Blanching uses heat to destroy enzymes that are responsible for changes in fruits and vegetables during ripening. These changes are desirable until produce reaches peak maturity, but must be halted to prevent overripening and eventual spoilage.
The heat of the boiling water deactivates the enzymes that cause off-flavors, loss of color and loss of nutrients. If a vegetable is properly blanched and held in storage at -18 C or lower, the nutritive value will be almost equivalent to that of the same vegetable cooked fresh.
Research has shown that the longer unblanched vegetables are stored in the freezer, the more the undestroyed enzymes will deteriorate the quality.
Here are some suggestions for improving the quality of frozen vegetables:
- Follow blanching times exactly, with just enough time to destroy enzymes and to not overcook vegetables.
Start timing as soon as vegetables go into the boiling water, not after water returns to a boil. Use a large amount of water for the volume of vegetable being blanched. Check in your freezer manual or cookbook to see what size of vegetable pieces are suggested for the blanching time given, as you want just enough heat to penetrate to the centre of each piece.
- Chill immediately after blanching by placing in cold running water or ice water to stop the heating.
- Fruits and vegetables have a high proportion of water that forms ice crystals when frozen. Sharp edges and corners of the crystals puncture cell walls and soften the texture. To minimize this, freeze food as quickly as possible and keep the freezer at a constant temperature of -18 C or lower to prevent crystals from enlarging.
Creamed corn
To make creamed corn, blanch cobs. With a sharp knife, cut kernels from the cob, cutting about two-thirds of the way through the kernel.
Use the back of the knife to scrape cobs to get the milk. Freeze.
To serve, heat and serve as is, or with added ingredients such as a little butter, sprinkle of sugar or salt and pepper. If you prefer a thicker creamed corn, thicken with a flour and water mixture.
Oven-baked corn for freezing
10 cups raw corn, 2.5 L
cut off the cob
1/4 cup sugar 50 mL
1 tablespoon salt 15 mL
2 cups water 500 mL
Put into a large casserole or roaster. Stir to mix well. Cover and cook: 10 cups (2.5 L) three-quarters of an hour at 350 F (180 C); 30 cups (7.5 L) one hour at 350 F (180 C). Cool and freeze in containers.
For help in answering your questions I contacted the garden line at the University of Saskatchewan. While it does not have regular office hours over the winter, the staff are happy to continue answering gardening questions.
Contact the line by voice mail 306-966-5865, fax 306-966-5015, e-mail patricia.richardson@usask.ca, or by writing to Department of Plant Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, 51 Campus Dr., Saskatoon, Sask., S7N 5A8.
