First local sweet corn this year


 
LMichaels

LMichaels

TVWBB 2-Star Olympian
Well yesterday I picked up grand son at Day Camp and on way home needed to make a stop at Wlagreens (satisfy my drug habit) and at the local grocery. While sitting in the car I hear from the back seat "Papa there is a sign across the street for sweet corn" (so glad he can read actually been reading since before he turned 4 smart little s^&t). So I made my grocery stop and we went across to the gas station. Sure enough. Corn freshly picked not more than 2 hours or so previously! From a local Cherry Valley grower (Blackmer Farms). Picked up a few for last nights dinner of cheeseburgers and grilled vidalia onions.
While it was still just a tiny bit immature it did not disappoint in flavor. As always the Illini Super Sweet variety they grow is outstanding. Sweet like sugar super tender (kernels just burst and melt in your mouth). There is a Japanese variety of corn a farm or two grow here in Illinois called Mirai and while it is good I have to say it does not hold a candle to how Blackmer grows their Illini Super Sweet plus they use organic farming to boot. Way cheaper than Mirai too. Anyway cut off the silks and loose ends fired up the Wolf and loaded in the corn. Gooooooood! Especially with organic grass fed butter from Kerry Gold.

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I haven't seen the roadside sellers up here yet. Been getting my corn at Walmart for 10 cents to 25 cents an ear for a couple months now. But, I am looking forward to some of the local (fresh) stuff.

I have done my corn in the husks before, but prefer wrapping shucked ears in aluminum foil with a bit of butter inside. The family prefers it as well. Probably not taste wise as much as convenience.
 
Foiled with butter, salt, pepper, and tajin is the way I like it. If you've never used tajin, give it a shot. I bet you like it.
 
I tried it that way but didn't like how the butter burns in the foil. Smell of toasted butter is one of those things that will actually make me ill and now there is the issue of cooking in foil after learning more about the condition that took my mother out. Honestly the husks and silks give the corn a wonderful sweet/grassy aroma and taste that I love. But ONLY from locally grown quality very fresh corn
 
I like cooking corn in the husks too. The silk comes out so easily that way, and it's just so convenient to cook it that way. You can always add butter :)
 
DOn't ever let anyone tell you that you have too much butter on your corn. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life
 
I've just always shocked my corn and put it directly on the grill. I find it delicious that way. Next time I'm going to try it in the husk as a change of pace.
 
In husk here too. We had corn from GA and it was pretty good. We haven't had any local corn yet.

We moved back from Germany in 2004. Our neighbors are farmers with plots local and miles away. He plants about an acre just for the neighborhood. They tell us when it's ready for picking and we pick all we want for free. He always asks if we got enough and need more because he does 2 plantings a couple weeks apart.

We eat all we want off the cob. We do a couple large boils, slice the corn from the cob and freeze about 20-25# every year.

We've already put up about 8# each of peas and green beans. We'll probably pick again tomorrow.

The peppers are edible, just not red yet. I've picked over a dozen cucumbers already too.
 
Local corn shows up in Conn around the 4th of July. From then until mid-Sept it is delicious. Roasted in alum foil or in the husk is great. Never microwave or boil. Been grilling it this way since ??? 1970.
 
Sweet corn season in Florida is already pretty much over :(. I need to learn how to grill corn like some if you all do.
 
Corn season here in the PNW is August through October and I can't wait. This thread has me excited already....
 
Was the corn grown in a greenhouse?
Planting to harvest takes 60 days absolute minimum, and
generally 75 to 100 days. I'm a fair ways south of you, and
local farmers here started planting corn at the start of May.
I pass by a number of corn fields on my daily commute and have
not seen any stalks more then ankle high yet.
 
Jon Tofte said:
Sweet corn season in Florida is already pretty much over :(. I need to learn how to grill corn like some if you all do.
Click to expand...

You also need to try real high quality Illini SuperSweet as it blows away anything that can be grown in FL. The soil in FL is just not able to grow really good sweet corn. Even if they plant the Illini variety it still never gets SWEET like here in IL. It's like Vidalia onions. You can grow the variety anywhere but it will never taste "right" due to the soil
 
With the moisture we have up in Wisconsin, the farmers dont even have seed in yet. Thay are already more than 2 weeks behind.
 
I saw a lot of standing water crossing northern WI over the holiday weekend. It's getting close to drop-dead dates for a lot of crops. MN is about 2 weeks late. My brother is figuring on harvesting cherries into August this year, that's pretty uncommon.

Re: sweet corn. Love the super sweet varieties, they're the absolute best when picked and grilled off in as short of time as possible. Grilling it can't be much easier, I peel back to just a couple of leaves covering the kernel, then 1-2 minutes on a side over a low to low-medium fire. There's a local grower here who will sell out a full pickup bed daily once he starts picking in mid July.
 
LMichaels said:
You also need to try real high quality Illini SuperSweet as it blows away anything that can be grown in FL. The soil in FL is just not able to grow really good sweet corn. Even if they plant the Illini variety it still never gets SWEET like here in IL. It's like Vidalia onions. You can grow the variety anywhere but it will never taste "right" due to the soil
Click to expand...

Well, we make do. It is pretty good to me when season here is at peak, but I agree Midwest is better. I was fortunate a couple years ago when my coworker brought me some home from Indiana.

Illinois carambola “star fruit” probably doesn’t work out so well, so every region has its blessings.
 
Here in Las Vegas, we got our alleged "first corn of the season from California" about 3 weeks ago. Buying any produce here is like spinning a roulette reel. Heck even if you buy it at the same time, one ear may be outstanding and another old. We used to grow supersweet bi-color in RI and it would be tough to make it all the way into the house before eating a cob raw. Like in CT, the season ran from around the 4th thru August. Out here produce is a mystery as to why it is so bad. Being only a couple of hours from California, it is amazing how poor produce is. Heck, we buy 30 lbs of vidalia onions from the Shriners every year and prep and freeze them. This year they were old, not sweet and beginning to sprout. We will only one 10lb. bag next year before we do the other 20lbs. In RI we would by 40lb. bags of potatoes and they would last throughout the winter. The "fresh" russets here are what we used to end up with at the end of the season. Best cukes we can find are at Trader Joe's and they only last a couple of days. "Sweet" onions in Las Vegas don't exist.
 
We do miss the butter and sugar. and silver queen varieties from Ma. But they do have some tasty local grown corn here in Az surprisingly. Can't wait for the vidalias to arrive either! Hav to try the in husk method without the foil as recommended too.
 
In Defense of Florida Sweet Corn

As I said before, I will not deny that Illinois/Indiana is the place for the best sweet corn. However, I am going to defend Florida by pointing out that not all Florida soil is of the low quality that Larry was apparently referring to when he dissed my state's sweet corn.

Out west of me at the edge of the Everglades is the community of Belle Glade. While a town mired in poverty, it is blessed with very rich, highly fertile soil, nothing like the lousy sandy soil where I live. This is sugar cane country but there are also farmers there producing some really good sweet corn.

Here's a little YouTube about one local farm that produces some very respectable and very sweet corn:

ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukd0H8OpYH8

A neighbor from the midwest told me about Heritage Farms in Belle Glade. She said their sweet corn was extremely good and very "close" to the midwest sweet corn she grew up on;).

https://www.heritagefarmsproduce.com/about
 
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