Archive for July 21st, 2012

Corn nearly ready

Corn is one of the most enjoyable plants to grow in a vegetable garden, because it grows so rapidly. Just a month ago, our corn plants were about one-third of their current height. Just in the past few weeks, each of the corn stalks has pushed out two ears of corn. The silk on some of them is starting to dry up already, which is often a sign that the ears are ready to pick. I haven’t picked any of the ears yet from this year’s crop, but I peeled back the husk on one of the ears that has dried silk, and it still had immature looking kernels. Pulling back the silk seems to be the only way to be sure that the ears are ready. Although this gardening site offers some interesting suggestions on other ways to tell when corn is ready to harvest.

This year, I am growing bicolored peaches and cream sweet corn that I planted by seed in late April. I planted seeds from the same variety of corn last year. The corn ears I picked initially around the 1st of August last year were very tasty and tender. However, we didn’t want to eat all of the corn at once, so I picked the remaining ears throughout the month of August. By mid-to-late August, the corn ears I was harvesting were more tough and less sweet. Harvesting corn as soon as it is ready and eating it right way seems to be the key to getting the best tasting corn. Corn seems to lose flavor when it’s left on the stalk and when it is stored in the refrigerator.

July 21 2012 | Corn | Comments Off on Corn nearly ready