Pickin' Sweet Corn

We grow a couple of heirloom varieties of sweet corn each year like we've done for umpteen years or so.  Sweet corn is one of those things that has at least two rows allocated each spring.  It grows fast and grows tall.  It feeds on the nitrogen in the soil provided by composted chicken litter and that homemade funky smelly fertilizer we've learned to make.

When I said it grows tall, I'm not pulling your leg.  Eleven feet from ground level to the top of the tassel!  The height is impressive, but it's also a curse of sorts.  When spring rains come they're usually accompanied by winds ahead of the thunderstorm.  Those gusts tend to lay the corn on the ground.  In the past, I'd stand them up and press dirt around the base to hold them straight.  That was a time consuming and unsuccessful venture.

For the past several years, I've opted for a better solution, using the "Florida Weave" method that I use for trellising tomatoes, but more simplified.  I drive a t-post on each end of the row and weave baling twine in and out all the way down the row and around the other t-post.  Coming back I weave the twine on the opposite side and cinch it up tight to the t-post on the end.  That way it makes the corn stand up straight again, which is important.  The tassels produce pollen that fertilizes the ears and that pollen uses the wind and gravity to do its job.  If the corn is laying down, my guess is that a lot of the ears will have blanks.  Each silk thread equates to a kernel of corn.  If pollination is not successful the ears will have blank spots.

Just look at that beautiful red silk!

A Beautiful "Red-Head"

Here's how you know when the corn is ready for harvest.  That beautiful red silk will turn brown.  When that happens, you've got to be ready to pick.  If you wait, you are in danger of a big fat worm eating its way through the ear or the corn will not be as juicy as it would have been if picked earlier.

It was a hot, humid morning and by the time I had picked every ear that was ripe, I had soaked my shirt.  I brought the crate of corn into the garage and put it in the refrigerator to cool down.  I wanted to cool down to, but there was still work to do.

I cut the corn stalks and carried to Nicky, the bull.  Nicky was thankful.  Popcorn the buck was grateful as well.

Aww Shucks!

A customary corn harvest day always involves eating a bite-full of raw sweet corn right there in the corn patch.  I want to show you my favorite variety - Country Gentleman.  I like the name of this variety.  I think it sounds noble.  Wouldn't you like to be considered a country gentleman?  This is a white shoepeg corn.  I like it also because the kernels are arranged in random, haphazard fashion unlike the uniform organization of 'normal' corn.  Somehow I can identify with that jumbled, unorganized arrangement!

Here is the other variety - Stowell's Evergreen Sweet Corn.  These kernels are lined up in neat lines like you're used to eating when you enjoy corn on the cob.

We blanched all the corn on the cob for nine minutes, cooled it in a sink of iced water and then used a sharp knife to cut the corn off the cob, scraping the cobs to get all the juicy corn "milk".  Then I spooned it into quart ziploc bags.  Yes, we re-use bags that are still in good shape!

Later, we'll thaw and make our two favorite dishes with sweet corn - Corn Macque Choux and Elote (Mexican Street Corn).  I think if it ever stops raining, I'm going to go plant a couple more rows of sweet corn.  You can't have too much of this in the freezer or to eat fresh right off the cob.

2025 Sweet Corn Harvest

We planted two rows of sweet corn this year.  We usually plant a couple of heirloom varieties - Country Gentleman and Stowell's Evergreen.  They aren't prolific producers (only one to two ears per stalk), they grow very tall and tend to blow over in the wind and rain, but they are non-GMO and are sweet.  I gathered my clippers and a laundry basket and decided I would go ahead and harvest in the morning before it got too hot.  It didn't matter.  It was hot and muggy and my shirt was soaked through and through almost before I got started.

I watched as a four foot long king snake slithered into the garden, unfazed by my presence, and nestled into the snap beans.  He knew I wouldn't do anything to him.  He's a "good" snake.  Still, if I was picking beans and didn't know he was there, he'd give me quite a start, for sure.

The way I judge if the corn is ready to harvest is by looking at the silk.  If it has turned brown, like you see below, it's ready to pick.

If it still has a red-color to it like you see below, I leave it to mature for a couple or 3 days.  Of the two rows, I left about 15 stalks standing that I'll go back and pick in a day or two.

The cows (in this case, Nick, the bull, takes great interest in the corn harvest as they eat the leaves and stalk of the corn plant.

In the end, we got a laundry basket full of sweet corn.  Not a tremendous harvest, but not terrible, either.

Aw shucks!  I began shucking the corn, removing the husks and silk.  Here is an ear of the Country Gentleman variety.  You'll notice that this variety is different in that the corn kernels are not arranged in uniform rows on the ear.  They're just haphazardly on the ear.

Here is an ear of the Stowell's Evergreen Corn.

We had a lot of damage this year from worms.  Most every ear had damage on the ends that I had to cut off.

After cleaning it all up, I took it inside where Tricia blanched it on the cob.  Once cooled, I cut the kernels off the cob and scraped the "milk" from the cob into a big stainless steel bowl.

We began bagging it all up in quart-sized zip loc bags.  We'll eat all this up later.  Our two favorite recipes to make are Mexican Street Corn and Corn Macque Choux.

Now that most of the corn is out of the way, I think I'll get some purple hull peas planted and maybe some pumpkins.

Sweet Corn is About to Come in

A short while back I explained how some recent rain and winds had knocked down some sweet corn.  That's not a good thing when the corn is about to tassel.  If the pollen doesn't fall on the silk, you'll have "blank heads."  I made a redneck sweet corn propper-upper with t-posts and baling twine and the effort was met with success.  The corn is standing tall once again in our two-row corn plot.

Let's look at a couple of zoomed in photos of the sweet corn tassel.  Although you'd never know it, the tassel is the male reproductive organ.  It produces pollen.

If I had zoomed in on the following two photos, you'd be able to see the yellow pollen.

As the wind blows, the pollen drifts in the air, falling (hopefully) on the silk sticking out of the ears.  Each one of those silk threads shown below, goes into the corn cob and where it's attached to the cob, a kernel of corn will come to be.  Pollination done by the wind uses gravity too, and that's why it was critical that I stood the corn upright before corn tasseled.  If you ever shucked an ear of corn and the ear had a bunch of gaps in it, you didn't get good pollination.  It's another reason it is a good idea to plant your corn in blocks and planted close together.  We're not going to count our chickens before they hatch, but it looks pretty good so far.

A pretty redhead

I will be watching the silk.  Once it turns brown, the sweet corn is ready to harvest.  In a few days we'll be able to see if the sweet corn is healthy.  Fresh sweet corn lives up to its name.  So sweet.  So delicious!

Falling Down, And Getting Back Up

For a righteous person falls seven times and rises again, But the wicked stumble in time of disaster.  Proverbs 24:16

The Bible is speaking of men who trust in the Lord, and though they may fall over and over again, he won't stay down.  He depends upon God to provide a means for him to get back up.  God sustains you.  He is the rigid framework that holds you up.  He dusts you off and sets you back on your way.

Speaking of falling down, we had a 1 inch rain yesterday.  It was pleasant, refreshing.  After the rain ended, I glanced in the garden and what I saw was a little discouraging.  I didn't think the rain and wind was bad, but it evidently was, because about a third of our sweet corn was lying on the ground, blown over.  It had fallen and on its own, it didn't look like it would rise again like our righteous man in the Proverb.  The sweet corn is beginning to tassel, and it's important for the corn to be standing tall so that all the kernels will be pollenated.

Tasseling

My mind began thinking of quick ways to stand it up and support it.  I grabbed the sledgehammer, some baling twine and four t-posts and went to work.  I hammered in a t-post at the beginning and end of both rows of corn.

Here is the second row:

I tied the baling twine together to make a long rope and I encircled all the corn and tied it back off.  The idea is that of a 'seat belt' for the corn.  It will hold the corn upright even when the strong winds blow.

Corn that was just blown over on the ground is now standing tall again.  Time will tell if my sweet corn seat belt will work, but at least for now, there will be no tickets for seat belt violations in our corn patch.

But wind blowing the corn over is not the only problem we have in the corn patch.  Take a look at this right here.  Can you see how the tops of the corn on the first several stalks have been eaten?  That damage is not from a bug, or worm.  No sir, that is damage from a goat (or nine others), but who's counting?   

The temptation is much too strong, and the goats fall to the temptation, leaning way over the fence to eat the corn.  What to do?  Barbeque the goat?  That will come later. 

For now, I'll simply build and obstacle.  The obstacle will prevent the goat from leaning in and eating our corn.  I simply got a cattle panel and tied it into the fence to prevent the goats from standing on h ground and gobbling up our corn.

Three days and counting and the cattle panel worked!  There was no new damage to the corn from the troublesome goats.  There are new challenges everyday - from wind knocking the corn down to meddling goats eating the stalk.  Every day is new.  Though we may fall, we get back up!

Life is Sweet

On Mother's Day, some bad weather blew through our area, bringing strong winds and hail.  It did a lot of destruction.  Not at our place, but neighbors across town.  I work for an insurance company and have been driving around counting hail dents on vehicles.  I have well over 100 hail claims to write estimates for.  I'll be busy for a while!  I feel sorry for the poor people I talk to that are heartbroken over their vehicles.  They can be repaired, though.

Life is still good, though, you know?  At the end of the day, things quieten down.  The sky gets real pretty.  Things are green and lush with all the rainfall.  We can take time to appreciate all the good things.  I walked out to the garden with a couple of 5 gallon buckets.  It was time to harvest the sweet corn.  The wind had laid some of it down on the tomatoes, but it was all good. 

I planted only two rows this year.  We still have ears of sweet corn from last year's crop in the freezer.  Last year we had a pollination problem.  Lots of blanks on the ears of corn.  This year the pollination problem was gone.  I planted the corn closer together this year.  That gives a better chance of fertilization.  All the ears were full and plump.

I have a little tradition that I started years ago.  When I pick the first corn of the year, I shuck it and eat the first ear raw, right there in the corn row.  Sweet.  Delicious.  You don't even need to cook it.

Of course I'm showing you a pretty ear.  I've got to be honest.  All the ears aren't pretty.  This is not an ear of corn that you want to eat raw standing in the sweet corn patch.

Doggone Worms!

I shucked all the corn and threw all the husks, silk and ends of the cobs over the garden fence.  The cows and goats feasted.  Nothing gets wasted around here.  The corn was ready for processing.  Tricia blanched it all.

Then, in a big bowl so as not to make a big mess, we cut the corn off the cob, scraping the cob good to get all the sweet 'milk' that we could.

Fresh sweet corn is such a treat!

We bagged it up in quart sized freezer bags.  They'll be put in the freezer and will be used to make corn maque choux, shrimp and corn chowder and other favorite dishes.

Simple pleasures like fresh sweet corn reminds you that despite all the problems in the world, life is still sweet!

Canning Sweet Corn

We harvested the last half row of Stowell's Evergreen Sweet Corn.  We always know its ready when the silk turns dark brown.  The ears are snapped off of the stalk and the stalk is tossed over the fence where the cows, goats and chickens make quick work of the corn stalks.  I always eat one ear raw out in the garden.  So sweet and fresh!  The rest I brought inside.

We shuck the corn, trying to pull most of the silk off and put the shucks in a big bucket.  I use a knife to cut off some worm-damage, but really it's not much.  We'll throw the husks and parts of the cob to the animals as well.  What they don't eat, we compost.  Then I use a vegetable brush to brush off any remaining silk.  They're small ears, but they are pretty.  They taste sweet, too.

Here's the corn all ready to process.  Not a lot, but it'll be good for our purposes.

Using a sharp chef's knife, I cut the corn off the cob.  Then I use a butter knife to scrape the cob, getting the 'milk' and remaining corn off the cob.

A close up shot of the corn cut off the cob.

All the corn is put into a big pot and a cup of water is added for every 2 cups of corn.  We found a recipe for Mexican Style Corn and we'll be following it.

We cut up onions, tomatoes and jalapeno peppers and salt and added into the pot.  This is all stirred up and is brought to a boil.

We use a canning funnel and ladle the hot corn mixture into the 10 pint jars, filling them up while leaving 1 inch headspace.  The tops are cleaned and the lids are put on with the rings added, finger tight.

We added the pint jars to the pressure canner.  Ours fits all ten jars.  We did have a little remaining, but we froze a quart zip loc bag full.  We'll eat that as a side dish at some point.

We can it at 10 pounds of pressure for 85 minutes.  The timer is started once the little weight on top starts rocking.  Once 85 minutes is done and the timer goes off, the canner is removed from the heat.  The jars are pulled out when the pressure drops and the satisfying sound of the lids popping echoes in the kitchen as they cool.

We'll stack these up in the pantry.  First, we did try the Mexican Corn as this was our first time to make it.  The corn thickened up after cooking.  The onions gave it nice flavor, but the jalapeno peppers took the flavor up several notches!  I remember as a kid eating Mexican Corn.  I think Green Giant made it in little cans.  Always enjoyed it back then.  We'll enjoy it now when we open a jar of it!

Food So Fresh!

Tomorrow shows a 90% chance of rain.  Those showers will make the garden jump in growth.  The sweet corn has really grown here lately with about 50% of the crop tasseling and silk is appearing.  This is a crucial time for the corn, so I hope the rainy and overcast weather tomorrow doesn't hinder pollination.  Poorly pollinated corn results in corn cobs that have missing (or few) kernels on the corn cob.  I've seen this a lot.  To prevent that, this year I tried to plant a little closer together.

But if I have concerns about pollination, I'm going to try a trick I read about - hand pollination.  Apparently, you gently cut the tassel off the top of the plant with scissors so you don't knock pollen off.  Then you move the tassel over the corn silk, trying to ensure each strand is dusted with pollen.  Reportedly, it is best to do this between 9-11AM after the dew has burned off.

We've been picking and eating lots of fresh vegetables here lately.  I harvested a huge bowl of Contender Snap Beans and snapped off the ends and Tricia cooked them.  So delicious.  We also picked some beets and two varieties of carrots.  The orange carrots are Danvers and the yellow ones are a free variety I received from Baker Creek.  They are called Uzbek Golden Carrots.  

We sliced up the root crops, salted them, put pats of butter on top (we eat a lot of butter!) and roasted them in the oven.  Roasted vegetables are so sweet.  We ate a plate full and went back for seconds.  Gotta be honest, there weren't many leftovers.  Not only do the vegetables taste great, but the colors are beautiful.

We're planning on picking some radishes tomorrow and making a spicy radish dip that we'll devour with raw carrots we'll cut up and use in place of crackers.  Looking forward to that.