Sweet corn

[Frickman]

We're right in the midle of our sweet corn harvest right now, have been picking since July 15. All the hours in the fields have kept me away from the forum quite a bit. In a month maybe I'll have some more time to hang around here. Do any of you like sweet corn? I do, and this might be my favorite time of year.

[Buzz-sawyer]

Im a feind for the stuff 8)
Do you pick with machines?

[Frickman]

We pick by hand, carry out by hand, and pack by hand. Yep, alot of hand work. Every field is gone through three times, each time two or three days apart. Not every ear ripens at the same time, and this allows the slowpokes to catch up. If you pick by machine you got one shot to get it right and end up throwing out alot of corn.

The machine pickers are used for cannery corn, the closest cannery to us is about four hours away. All our corn is sold fresh locally, the day it was picked. We hire high school and college kids to help out. We pick every morning and it gives them a few hours work before they go off to other jobs. One boy is my right-hand man and stays all day to help with baling hay in the afternoon.

The toughest thing about picking corn is getting soaking wet every morning. The past two years have had mostly cool nights with heavy dew. This year we've gotten soaked every day except one.

[Pete J]

It sounds like a tough, but healthy way to make a living. Keep up the good work. Next time I pass a farm stand around here I'm gonna pick myself up some local sweet corn. It's only fresh once a year.

[Captain]

I got my best corn of the year yesterday out of a pickup truck on the side of the road in Pittsfield, ME.  Should've bought more.

Captain

[Gilman]

My folks stopped for some sweet corn being sold out of an old pickup truck on their way to the beach.  Get to the beach, boil some water, cook some corn, butter the corn, take a bite, & spit it out.

Turns out it was silage  :D

Bet that guy didn't stick around long.

[Buzz-sawyer]

Ive eaten field corn before, if you catch it young and tender its not bad ;D

[Norm]

That reminds me Gilman of when my brother was working for a farmer that had planted some sweet corn out in the middle of a big stand of field corn so folks wouldn't see it from the road. He told us we could have all we wanted so out into the field we went and got a couple of gunny sacks full for freezing. Should have tried some before doing so as it turned out we grabbed field corn instead. :D

[Gilman]

At least you put it all up before you found out!  :D :D

[Fla._Deadheader]

  Them's called "Roastin Ears", right Arky ???  ;D ;D ;)

[Patty]

This has been a banner year for sweet corn aound here. Even was able to harvest some of our own before it got too ripe. (our luck with sweet corn hasn't been so good until the last couple years) Hmmm boy, there is nothing better than an ear of good sweet corn. I like it even right off the stalk, I'll just stand out in the sweet corn patch muncin down the ears. Kinda like the way I pick fresh tomatoes, one for the bucket and two for me.  ;D  

[etat]

I like it even right off the stalk, I'll just stand out in the sweet corn patch muncin down the ears. Kinda like the way I pick fresh tomatoes, one for the bucket and two for me

made two old memories jump in my head, one....picking strawberry's at mama Hutchinson's, and out behind the barn....climbing that tree and picking muskadines (sp)  at mama tate's.  too many of them and yer lips would start puckerin or blistering, but boy was they good. 8) 8) 8)

[SwampDonkey]

 ;D

I planted corn last year and got to eat about 6 ears, gave away a dozen or so. Then, the coons moved in and took the rest over night. The scare crow didn't phase'm a bit. :D This spring I said to myself, ' I don't want to bother with corn, just for the coons'. Then I got rumaging through the closet in the entry and I find a bag of last year's seed and there was a 1/2 pound of corn seed in there. This was mid july and I decided, why not plant it. I didn't care if I got to eat it, just stuck it in for fun. And this monday will be 5 weeks and the corn is chest high now. :D I'll have corn in Septemeber if the coons don't deside to break it all down before it matures. Sometimes they just chew the sweet stalks, long before the corn flowers.  :

I like corn, but I won't buy cobs in stores because its all turned to starch sittin in the heat. Just like eatin wood chips. ;D

[Tom]

Raccoon taste good too. :D

[Patty]

We run an electric fence  about 5" off the ground around the sweet corn patch to keep the coon out. It works really well.

[SwampDonkey]

hmmm I was told to place newspaper down amongst the corn. Anchor the sheets down with rocks. If it don't keep the coons out it'll kill the chick-weed anyway. I got that weed from the nieghbor's weedy straw I used around the strawberries. :D

[MULE_MAN]

My daughter & her Husband planted some sweet corn & the coons started getting in it . So he put a radio out there & turn the volume up .I was kidding her about it & told her the  coons would probably be in there doing the 2 step & electric slide. I called her 2 days later and she say the coons were staying out of there corn . But the 3rd day the battery went dead . And the coons ate good !!!! :D  :D  :D She didn't think it was funny  :-[

[SwampDonkey]

Mule_Man:

My uncle has always done that with success too. He turns it on in the barn and no coons in the corn. :D

These coons around my place have to knock over my rainwater pale every night as if to say, 'we were here last night'.  :D

[old3dogg]

Ya baby!!
Fresh sweet corn roasted over a wood fire! 8)
At least I know what Im gonna have for dinner tonight.

[Frickman]

One key to good sweet corn is eating it when it's fresh picked. As Swampy found out, the sugar turns to starch after it's picked. This is the seed's long-term survival mechanism, if it senses it is off the stalk it automatically begins converting sugar to starch. Starch can be stored long-term over winter, sugar cannot. We guarantee our corn's quality as it is fresh-picked daily. Always with a Forum hat on my head too.

Years ago there were some unscrupulous operators in our area selling field corn as sweet corn. Alot of this corn was stolen out of farmers fields. White sweet corn took off in popularity as folks thought that it was guaranteed to be sweet corn. There are some varieties of white field corn, though most don't know it. Anyway, sometimes it is a hard sell when all you have that day is yellow or bicolor, as people have memories of being taken in the past.

[SwampDonkey]

There is one local outfit here that pick their corn daily and keep it in a big cooler in the shed. It's kinda pricy though at $6.00 a dozen, but farm fresh. I'm not trying to knock the farmer 'cause he needs all he can get, but it's hard competing with the store at $2.49 a dozen.  : Any corn I eat will be from the garden or can, cause I'm a cheep-scape. :D

The farmer next door has been renting his land to another who has been growing feeder corn for pigs and this year soybeans (75 acres) next to my house for the piggies. But they have about 350 acres of feeder corn in on the same farm as well.

[old3dogg]

$6.00 a dozen!?
I get farm fresh for $3.00 a dozen.$2.00 if you want to pick it yourself.
I have never run into someone trying to sell me feed corn for sweet corn.

[Frickman]

Two months picking and we're finished! There's been lots of good eatin' around here, I even got a few ears for myself. Now maybe we can get back to sawing.

[Patty]

You have ALL my respect Frickman. I've picked & sold sweetcorn out of the back of a pick-up, there is nothing easy about it.

 Hope you had a good season.  

[junkyard]

SwampDonkey

Round here farm fresh first of season $2.50 dozen. Soon as every body has it $1.25 Dozen.
 I buy the seed neihbor plants first rows on field corn piece, when it's ready we all eat then he chops for silage.
                     Junkyard