Corn Days in the Cove

For many of us, it all starts about the first of July and starts winding down around Labor Day. Those two months are filled with great prospects of that first crunch into the buttery, salty golden kernels that present themselves on the dinner plate.

This season of pleasure begins winding down toward the end of August when the blue jean waist is tightening up and the kernels are not quite as juicy as they once where.

Whether one prefers to call it sweet corn, roasting ears or corn on the cob, if you are a member of the corn connoisseur club, you likely are giving the 2022 offerings from the fields and fruit stands across the region a satisfactory rating.

While some home gardeners with a small patch in the back of the garden are pointing to a lack of rain at vital times in the early to mid-growth season as reason for a disappointing harvest, those with larger patches and the commercial growers are pleased with the results of their labors thus far.

"There just wasn't enough rain when we needed it the most," said my sister Janet Ronk of Heston. "If we get enough for 10 bags for the freezer, we'll be happy."

In comparison, last year the bountiful crop was such that the freezer was filled and the Ronks were looking for way to not let the harvest go to waste.

It's a different story across the mountain in Morrisons Cove, where for many the rains were well timed.

Tammy Furry of Furry Orchard Road, New Enterprise, and her husband Derry started planning early, long before they started planting seed and so far the results have been admirable.

Just ask Joe Furry, a retired U.S. mail carrier and Derry's father. One day last week, he picked 65 dozen ears of corn in a record-setting early morning, all to fill orders for the Bodacious variety of tender yellow kernel corn planted for a whole lot of good reasons.

"We're doing pretty good. We planted a couple varieties to come mature at succeeding times," said Tammy Furry, a woman with a good reputation for breeding Clydesdales and a growing recognition for her sweet corn sense.

The Bodacious harvest is winding down and a bicolor corn will be ready this week. Another one will be in the spotlight toward the end of August and the Furrys expect to have plenty of top quality corn for Labor Day corn boils.

The corn harvests at the locally recognized corn and produce headquarters are equally encouraging.

David Martin, who wears multiple caps at Peach Hill Orchard just outside Curryville, said that while a long and successful corn harvest takes a lot of work, planning is everything.

Historically Peach Hill is the first in the Cove to offer fresh sweet corn, usually around July 4, even if it is from counties closer to the Eastern Seaboard. Once the local crop is ready, the variety usually changes every week and sometimes every couple days.

Weather doesn't hold Martin captive, especially when it comes to the corn harvest. Well-timed irrigation plays a key role in the growing season.

"There's a lot of it out there," Martin said outside his market as he unloaded produce.

This year a high number of growers are catching the corn spirit and setting up road side stands and advertising their product availability on Facebook.

Speculation is that the less than vigorous economy is prompting landowners to looks for ways to generate a little income from the sod they pay taxes on.

But despite what many may see as a glut on the market, it does not translate into lower per dozen prices.

"There is really a high demand," said Martin, speculating that consumers are concerned about threats of food shortages and doing what they can to build a little reserve in the basement chest freezer.

This love of sweet corn is not a new thing, according to records kept by brave explorers more than two centuries ago.

"A woman brought her child with an abscess in the lower part of the back and offered as much corn as she could carry for some medicine," wrote Meriwether Lewis, captain of the Lewis and Clark expedition credited with western exploration of what is now the United States following the Louisiana Purchase.

"We administered to it of course very cheerfully," said Lewis of the gift of sweet corn during the great 1804-1805 expedition.