Corny but Sweet
Once a year, about this time, everyone waits to taste my Dad’s one of a kind, best you’ve ever eaten, super sweet, home grown, sweet corn. With golden flecks of yellow and pearly white kernels standing in neat little rows, my mouth waters thinking about it. As long as I can remember, sweet corn has been planted every year, without fail, on the family farm. My Dad takes pride in planting the straightest rows of the mixed white and yellow corn.
As a farm girl, having an abundance of sweet corn was a definite advantage. Dad let us kids sell the plentiful corn, and what we made in sales was ours to keep. His only condition was we had to do the work. From painting the signs on big scraps of plywood and strategically placing them down the road, making sure they were visible from both directions, to gathering the bags, setting up the stand, picking the corn (the ripe ones, of course) and loading up the #80 wagon and hauling it with the John Deere 110.
Our stand was between the barns and the house under a giant oak tree, that provided us with cool shade and protection from the hot summer sun. My Mom would bring us water or lemonade to quench our thirst. Originally, we sold the corn for $1.00 a dozen, well……a baker’s dozen to be precise, but over the years it capped out at $1.50. We would pick corn until the wagon was heaping full, and wait for customers.
We spent hours a day for a couple of weeks or until the corn crop was exhausted. We had repeat customers year after year and many just passing through. Frankly, the reputation of my Dad’s sweet corn sold itself. How ever many siblings sold the corn was the number the final dollar count got divided by. Our biggest haul ever was $345.00, that year it was only split two ways between me and my brother; we thought we were the richest kids alive.
Our selling days have long past, but with my sister in town, we tagged team and put up sweet corn for the family. We had corn niblets everywhere……but it was fun, and we have a wonderful garden treasure awaiting it’s use for the upcoming year. People still come both near and far to enjoy my Dad’s super delicious, corny but sweet, summer delight. It is his gift to share, and oh how lucky we are.
xoxox……Sheryl