This week we will see the first sweet corn of the 2012 season. The season is starting out with a hybrid 72 day Spring corn variety. The 72 days is the time from germination to harvest, and is a relatively quick variety, which is why it is the first of the season. This corn is a little smaller than the popular varieties we will see in the coming weeks, but it's very fresh and the flavor is good. In the next 1-2 weeks we do expect the larger, popular sweet corn varieties to come available, such as Silver Queen, Fantasia, and Devotion. These are the 8-9 inch varieties, with 16-18 rows of creamy, sweet kernels that summer is famous for. The most popular variety among NC growers for a long time was Silver Queen. However, in the past 5-10 years, many growers switched over to Fantasia, and more recently to Devotion, which is an upgraded version of Fantasia, but less well known.

Optimal Sweetness:
Sweet Corn is best eaten just after harvesting. After an ear of corn is separated from the crop, the sugars start converting starches, and the corn starts to lose it's sweet flavor. This is a gradual process, and the most popular varieties listed above actually retain their sweetness better than most corn (a reason for their popularity), but the corn will still be at its sweetest just after harvesting. Fortunately, we are working closely with Barefoot Farms so that all corn is picked early in the morning, and then delivered to you later that day, so that you can experience truly fresh corn. Most products offered through Papa Spud's are harvested within 24-48 hours of delivery, but sweet corn will be harvested in under 12 hours of delivery. We hope you enjoy it!

john r k. (Jun 16, 2012 at 4:43 pm)
The corn was unbelivable! The best, sweetest early corn I've ever had, and the ears were almost perfect, with no bad areas or missing kernels. Bravo!!

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