Lend me your ear

[953 nut 59,111]

 

 

Some call it “corn-stick,” others go with “sweet pole,” but we like to call it amazing — especially when you use those cute plastic corn on the cob handles. National Corn on the Cob Day falls on June 11 — the perfect pre-summer date. (Although, for most home gardens, mid-June is still too early for the harvest.) But you can’t blame anyone for being in a hurry. The sweetness doesn’t hang around for very long. It has to be picked at its freshest, otherwise there’s a risk of — nothing really — it’s just slightly less incredible tasting.

Note: If you plan on doing the picking yourself, there’s a trick to spotting when the corn is ready. During the milk stage, the kernels are still soft, and this is nature’s way of saying “come and get it!” Boil it, steam it, roast it, or grill it —

there’s no wrong or right method as long as it stays on that cob.

Obviously, the producers of this story don’t know much about sweet corn since they featured footage of field corn.

 

 

[Ed Kennell 41,270]

Too early here.   

The other end of the field to the left is in tassel and will be ready in about 4 weeks.    It was planted under plastic in early April.  Ten rows were planted every two weeks so he has corn all summer.

[Beap52 1,330]

": If you plan on doing the picking yourself, there’s a trick to spotting when the corn is ready. During the milk stage, the kernels are still soft, and this is nature’s way of saying “come and get it!”"

 

Yep,  once it starts to "dent" it's getting past prime eating.   Usually, the coons will know the perfect time to eat sweet corn--the night before you have planned to gather it for yourself.  I personally like to cut the kernels off the cob before I eat.  Something about getting corn stuck in my teeth. 

[953 nut 59,111]

10 hours ago, Beap52 said:

 Usually, the coons will know the perfect time to eat sweet corn--the night before you have planned to gather it for yourself.

Around here the deer are one step ahead of the coons, once they start eating the deer eat the small immature ears too. That is why I have given up on gardening. 

[Ed Kennell 41,270]

46 minutes ago, 953 nut said:

Around here the deer are one step ahead of the coons, once they start eating the deer eat the small immature ears too. That is why I have given up on gardening. 

I have seen deer straddle the stalks  as they walk down a row of field corn pushing the corn down with their chests so they can easily reach and bite off the tops of the young ear.    

 

When my Amish neighbor bought this farm six years ago and planted the corn, he strung one strand of this electric fence tape between the woods and the field.

He put a glob of peanut butter every 4-5 feet.     He only needed it the first year and I have not seen a deer in the corn since.  

 

[rjg854 12,009]

2 hours ago, 953 nut said:

Around here the deer are one step ahead of the coons, once they start eating the deer eat the small immature ears too. That is why I have given up on gardening. 

That's why we gave up trying to have a garden, the critters were better at knowing when to harvest what we were growing.