As for eating sweet corn, it’s important to keep sweet corn cold. After the corn is picked, sugars will start to convert to starch. Keeping corn cold will slow this process down, preserve the quality and sweetness and give you a few more days to enjoy it.
The varieties of sweet corn we grow produce very sweet & flavorful corn that you’ll find to be very tender with nicely filled out ears. The tenderness is because our varieties have a thin pericarp which is the “husk” that covers each kernel of corn.
While eating it off the cob is a special summer treat, fresh corn can be enjoyed in so many other ways. Cut it off the cob and add it to summer vegetable salads, salsas, or relishes. Stir fresh corn kernels into cornbread batter, make fritters or sweet corn pancakes. It’s also good in summer vegetable chowders and light soups. If you cut the corn off the cob, don’t discard the cob. Add it to soups or stock where it will impart a delicious corn flavor.
Corn pairs well with a lot of other ingredients including summer vegetables such as green beans, tomatoes, edamame, onions, and peppers. It also plays well with butter, cream and cheese such as Monterey Jack, Parmesan and feta. As for herbs, corn dishes pair well with cilantro, basil, mint and thyme to name a few.
If you’d like to preserve sweet corn, it’s a little messy but overall pretty easy to do. First you remove the husk and silks. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt the water. Cook the ears of corn just until you see the color of the kernels change to a bright yellow. Remove the corn from the boiling water and put it in a pan or sink of clean water with ice in it. Put the corn in the ice water to stop the cooking process. Once cooled, stand the ear of corn upright on the wide base of the ear on a cutting board. Cut the corn off the cob by running the paring knife down the ear. Try to cut as close to the ear as possible to avoid wasting any of the good corn or the juice! You can also run the back of a knife on the cob to get all the good corn juice. Once the corn is cut off the ear, just spoon it into a freezer bag, close the bag and freeze the corn. You’ll be glad you did this when you are pulling frozen corn out in January to make a delicious corn chowder!
Growing Information: There are many varieties of sweet corn, but not all are created equally. First, we do not grow any GMO sweet corn. We opt to use organic or untreated seed and rely on newer “sugar-enhanced” bi-color hybrids, many of which are recommended to us by our knowledgeable seed rep. These varieties start sweet and have tender kernels. Early in the season we look for a variety with the ability to germinate in cold soil. We do what we can to help it along by planting the seed fairly shallow on a sunny day. The first 24 hours are critical to success so we rely on the heat of the sun to warm the soil. This tactic, in Farmer Richard’s words, gives the seed the “kiss of life” and just enough heat and encouragement to germinate the seed. The other tricky part of choosing an early season variety is that most varieties we have trialed don’t taste that great. We’re happy to have found two delicious varieties, Sweetness & Nirvana.
Additional Fun Facts: Farmer Richard enjoys the challenge of growing “the best” sweet corn, a delicate balance between choosing a variety with good genetics, one that will perform under challenging field conditions, and one with good corn flavor and just the right balance of sweetness and tenderness. No small task! One of the qualities Richard looks for in a sweet corn variety is the rate of conversion of sugars to starch. We choose ones that have been developed to have a slower conversion rate, which gives you more time to eat and enjoy the corn before it becomes starchy and compromised. We take ice to the field when we harvest it, ice it again when it comes in and store it in the cooler until we pack it and load it on a refrigerated truck.
