Plant and prepare sweet corn

For many years Rosalie and I have hosted reunions for her family members and timed them for what I always hope is the zenith of sweet corn harvest. Timing's the thing: A few days early, a few days late and the farmer is hung out to dry, at least in his own mind.

My rows are 80+ feet long and I plant about 10 of them. Lots of corn and you'd think the odds of catching it right would favor me since I try to have two succession plantings overlap around August 20th and schedule the affair for the closest weekend.

Mr. Weather is a fickle fellow and I haven't hit the exact target for the past two years, though I've faithfully counted days from planting to germination. I got by, but only barely.

WHAT TO PLANT
I plant the super-sweet (sugar-enhanced) varieties of "Breeder's Choice" from Burpee and whatever rows are left (three or so) with "Incredible" seed from Cedar's Lawn and Garden, a local garden center.

EDIT: The Breeder's Choice was a bust in the garden of 2009. It might be blamed on weather or my failure to water enough, but this Burpee's variety was pretty sickly, compared to "Incredible." In view of Burpee's price and this year's performance, likely I'll avoid Burpee corn from now on. Anyone else experience problems this year?

WHEN TO PICK
Part of my problem with "hitting the target" is that I am pleased only if I have ears enough (40-60) that are exactly at the apex of sweetness and tenderness. And exactly when is that? It is precisely when the individual kernels are beginning to turn yellow or have just turned yellow and before they have started to swell. Once the swelling begins and you can see them crowding one another the kernel skins begin to toughen and they are less sweet.

By the time those kernels are so fat they get all scrunched together, they are milky and pasty and their skins are like shards of glass. I exaggerate, but to me sweet corn is no good whatever when it gets this old.

HOW TO PREPARE FOR EATING
Corn when it's perfect can be eaten from the cob in the field. Eat around the worms, spit out the silk, throw the garbage back onto the field - and there ain't no finer day in summer to remember. This stuff is like wet candy.

This means only that preparation is mostly an unneeded decoration to a perfect meal that nature has already prepared. Heat is the thing, I guess.

For many years I baked the corn in husks over a wood fire for the reunion. Ears were soaked in water for a few hours (giving the worms the opportunity to get to hell out) before being placed on a rack over a fire in a pit. The water made steam, thus creating a nice, soft bunch of kernels once the husk had been peeled but left as a handle for one end.

Leave it over the fire to the end and kernels become "caramelized" as they say on Food TV Network - meaning a bit scorched and hardened, but nevertheless still (but no more) sweet.

Every bit as good is to remove the husk and boil, leaving the ear moist and hot, as is the easiest and quickest and most traditional way to do it.

HOW TO PREPARE FOR PRESERVING
Rosalie stopped canning stuff when our kids left home. Anyway, we have a little freezer in the basement devoted to corn and tomatoes and other stuff. As far as we're concerned, freezing corn beats canning this way and that (read: to hell and back).

Almost every day throughout corn harvest season (which lasts until the first weeks of September for us) we enjoy corn on the cob. But eventually each planting expires by giving us swelled kernels and too-husky husks. That's when I haul in the remainder and cut it for freezing.

The more I do it, the more I learn, and here's what I've learned so far: Begin immediately after picking. Do the cutting outside in the shade, preferably with a nice breeze. Use a long, serrated blade (as is sold for cutting bread). Have a big container for the husks and silk and wormy parts. Have a big cutting board and hold the ears vertically. Cut all you can get without cutting off the base of those nasty hulls. Have a big clean-water container nearby to wash from your hands and the knife and the board all that sugary, silky residue. A loaded garden hose will clean the syrup from your board, table and knife.

Put this garden gold in plastic freezer bags and freeze immediately. That's it. No blanch, no nothing else.

GO FOR A GOOD DEAL ON PRICE
By the way, if I didn't grow my own I'd look up commercial growers of super-sweet (sugar-enhanced) corn and I'd ask them to sell it at a super-sweet price. Ears that aren't pretty and have a worm or two and have missing kernels and aren't filled out at the ends are probably plowed under. Better to sell it to you, even if you have to go pick it. And if I were a commercial corn grower, I'd be glad to see you coming. Try it and let me know how you get along.

FEED US BACK
I never claimed to have perfect methods or the last word on anything. Tell us about your experiences.