Sweet Corn

We start picking our sweet corn in July. Some years we have started picking our first patch of sweet corn on July 5, other years the first corn wasn’t ready for picking until July 24. Our average date for picking the first corn is July 13. While the main reason for this wide range of first picking dates is the weather in May and June, other reasons include date of planting and the particular sweet corn variety. The primary problem with super-early varieties is ear size, so we are hesitant with planting them. However, we do plant second-early corn. Most likely the year we had sweet corn ready for the weekend of the 4th of July was that the May and June temperatures averaged well above normal, we planted the corn earlier than normal and we chose an xtra-early variety.

In 2010 we are not only putting out a new website, but the brilliant software engineer, Matthew Fox (with a little help from his Dad), has created a revolutionary software program that estimates the first picking date for not only our first patch of corn, but every other patch of corn we plant as well! Since we normally plant at least 35 different patches, that’s saying a lot! Also, we plan on keeping our customers informed on what the computer estimates will be the first day we will start selling sweet corn. The link to this date is: WHEN SWEET CORN WILL START THIS YEAR. This date will be updated at least once a week, perhaps sometimes even daily. Last year we tested out an early version of this software and it performed better than expected! This software’s primary purpose is to help us plant our patches of sweet corn so there is a continuous supply from July until October 10 (or first frost). We call this software “Sweet Corn Scheduler” and we will soon be marketing it through our website. The software’s target audience is those who grow from one to a thousand acres of sweet corn.

While one of our goals throughout Magicland Farms is freshness, we carry this to extreme with sweet corn. Most of our corn is sold within 6 hours of picking—many times this time is reduced to an hour. We try to pick most of our corn before we open at 10AM. (Sweet Corn fields are no place to be in on sunny, summer afternoons unless you happen to have a sprinkler hitting you in your face! Trust me here.) When we have picked an over abundance of corn one day, the next day we move it from our big new corn bin inside and put it in our old corn bin sitting outside. We then sell it as Day Old corn at substantial discounts that approach half-price. This Day Old corn is several days fresher than corn in supermarkets and is normally sold at prices below supermarket sales prices.

In 2009 we test planted the Mirai type of sweet corn which has some super-sweet genes bred into it. Mirai also has some regular sweet corn genes in it which are, no doubt, responsible for its great flavor. It also is exceptionally tender and creamy textured. Believe it or not, while all the customers we contacted enjoyed it, some felt it was too sweet! Our test planting was a success and while last year we only planted bi-color Mirai, this year we will be planting all yellow and all white Mirai as well. Since Mirai can’t be planted in cold soils, it won’t be normally ready before late July at the earliest. This is about two weeks later than our first corn.

Sweet Corn History and More

Zea Mays var. Saccharita

Aroused your curiosity? If so, good. Zea mays is the scientific name for corn. The “var.” simply means the particular variety of the species. Here "saccharata" is the variety name botanists gave to what we, the rest of us, call simply "sweet corn." Where did the word "saccharata" come from? Well, in Latin saccharum means sugar and you probably can figure out the rest since botanists love Latin, or at least their modified form of it. Similarly, botanists gave the name Zea mays var. everta to popcorn, Zea mays var. indura to flint corn and Zea mays var. indenta to field corn.

A Bit of Sweet Corn History

The exact place or original wild plant that was the origin of corn, is not known for certainty. Most likely corn originated in southern Mexico and a wild grass, called teosinite, was perhaps one of its ancestors. The oldest archaelogical corn, dated about 5000 B.C., was found in Mexico’s valley of Tehuacan. What we do know is that it was the Native Americans that took the original ancestors of the corn and bred them into four different types of corn: Flint (e.g. decorative or Indian Corn), Dent(e.g. common field corn), Popcorn and, of course, Sweet Corn. If the Native Americans didn’t take the time and effort to do this breeding, we would not be enjoying this filet mignon of vegetables, but the US, Canada and Mexico would be a lot poorer in many ways, and not just economically.

The Sweet Corn Heirlooms - the First Sweet Corn Varieties

While corn itself is much older, it seems the Native Americans developed sweet corn roughly 1500 years ago. There are no records of Europeans trying it until the late 1700’s when the Iroquois gave sweet corn, which they called Papoon, to European settlers. While there aren’t written records as to the kernel color of the sweet corn the Iroquois gave to the settlers, it seems likely it was white sweet corn since one of the oldest named sweet corn varieties, Stowell’s Evergreen, was developed by Nathan Stowell of New Jersey in 1848 and is white corn. Then in 1891, the still famous Country Gentlemen white sweet corn, burst into general store displays as well as the first mail order seed catalogs. I still hear echoes in my ear of my Grandma Anna’s claim that Shoepeg (another name for Country Gentlemen) was the best corn there was. Period. Well, unless there are corn fields in heaven, my Grandma never has tasted "Whiteout" corn!

During the 1800s sweet corn was nearly synonymous with white corn.  However, in the late 1890s Burpee Seed Co. purchased some seed from a sweet corn variety that was grown by the Massachusetts farmer William Chambers for years. In 1902 Burpee Seed Co introduced this variety in their catalog. Golden Bantam, which they named it, became perhaps the most famous sweet corn of all time. As its name indicates, this was golden or yellow corn. Before 1900 most people thought that yellow corn was fit only for animal feed. Within a few years after Golden Bantam’s introduction, people in the United States began to favor yellow corn. While some have criticized Golden Bantam’s small ears, the ear size seemed to somehow make it even more popular, perhaps to distinguish it from the big eared yellow field corn. By the way, don’t confuse Burpee Golden Cross Bantam with Golden Bantam. Golden Cross Bantam has good sized ears and is a hybrid while Golden Bantam is open pollinated. As you would expect with such a famous corn, it is good eating. Nonetheless, you only have two days to pick it at its prime. If you wait just 5 days too long it is basically inedible.

I have grown all three of the famous heirloom sweet corns and my Grandma was right, Country Gentlemen was the best of the three. This old corn is almost as good as Silver Queen, a famous modern era white corn. Stowell’s Evergreen is also good and as its name indicates and unlike Golden Bantam, it stays tender on the stalk for quite a long time.

Papoon and all heirlooms mentioned are non-hybrid corn. (Sometimes non-hybrid corn is also referred to as open-pollinated corn.) This means they are pure strains and if you plant a patch of say Golden Bantam, with no other corn varieties around, you can dry the kernels and use the seed next year and you will again get Golden Bantam corn. In practical terms varieties such as Golden Bantam are considered pure strains. Consider this analogy of non-hybrid corn with people: you would be considered pure Irish if not only your mother and dad came from Ireland and both were generally considered pure Irish . If, however, your dad was, according to this definition, pure Irish and your mom pure English you could be considered an Irish-English hybrid. In 1931 Purdue University released the famous Golden Cross Bantam which became the first commercial hybrid sweet corn. A hybrid corn has two different parents. The two parents of Golden Cross Bantam are apparently two different pure strains of Golden Bantam. (Perhaps a bit like a Scottish-English hybrid person.) A single cross hybrid is a cross of two different pure strains. (Note that if you are a Irish-English hybrid you can be considered a single-cross hybrid.) Hybrid corn is generally considered superior in growth, yield and often taste to pure bred non-hybrid corn and despite its cost, it was just a few years after Golden Cross Bantam was released that hybrid corn started to replace pure strains. While there were several other hybrid sweet corn released during the next 20 years, it was 1951 when the famous Iochief sweet corn was released by the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station and won the prestigious All-America Selection reward. Iochief turned out to be well deserving of this reward since Iochief was generally recognized for over 10 years as THE sweet corn to plant! In fact, the first SuperSweet corn got much if its genetic material from this variety and is why it was named IlliniChief. Then in 1955 The Rogers Brothers Seed Company (now known as simply Rogers) introduced a fantastic new white corn they called Silver Queen. This variety set the standard for being the best tasing sweet corn for many, many years. In fact, many still think it is still the best corn around.