I have been eating sweet corn since I had teeth, but this weekend I bought my first sweet corn. I was raised to pick the corn right before supper; preferably after the water was already on the stove.
The reason I bought the corn was that two sons of a good friend decided to sell some of their excess sweet corn. It was three dollars a dozen. We have had our own corn for two weeks, but I wanted to support the boys entrepreneurial effort. They picked ten dozen and had their dad drive them to their grandma's house on a busier road than their small farm. Turns out I was their only customer. I paid them the three dollars and put the corn in the fridge. My lovely wife cooked six ears tonight. One ear was OK. the others were too starchy and went to the chickens.
If you do not raise your own corn, make a friend who does. If the corn is more than one hour from the stalk, its hog feed. I am glad I helped the boys, but I am going back to picking my own. I know that snobbery of any sort is unappealing, but I will remain a sweet corn snob.
3 comments:
Hi
I have been enjoying your wife's blog for about a month now and just discovered your blog today as a result of your comments on hers. Now you are both on my favorites list!
I was wondering what kind(s) of sweet corn you grow. I know you are in Pennsylvania and we are in Michigan so that may make some difference, but we have been trying to find a good open-pollinated sweet corn so we can save our own seed. Do you plant OP or hybrids?
We're having success with many OP vegetables, but still looking for a good corn. Any advice?
Would still be interested in what kind you plant even if you grow only hybrids.
Thanks!
Theresa
Hi Theresa,
Thanks for stopping by. About seven years ago, a very old lady from church told me how great the sweet corn was when she was a kid growing up in Ohio. She remembered the variety as a shoe peg corn with irregular rows. I found some. "Country gentleman" is the name I believe. Honestly, it was some of the worst sweet corn we ever ate. It was possibly sweeter in the memory of an old lady. we are also probably spoiled in this society by too many sweets as well, so our sweet corn needs to be sugar enhanced. I went back to Bodacious, Silver King, Silver Queen and Butter and Sugar. These are all modern sugar enhanced hybrids. We have planted open pollinated field corn with great success. I have also heard of a variety called Truckers Favorite being a good dual purpose sweet and feed corn. Overall, we have had great success with many OP varieties, just not sweet corn.
We planted Silver Queen this year and it did very well, but it seems a little "pale tasting" to me compared to the stronger flavor of some of the yellow sweet corns.
Thanks for the info - nice to know we're not the only ones resorting to hybrids with the sweet corn!
Theresa
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