In your boxes…

Sweet corn Like everything else, the corn is early this year.  This is a sweet yellow variety.  We don’t have room to grow sweet corn, so we work with other local growers to provide this.  We make sure it is fresh-picked.  We had some for lunch today and it is yummy!

Fresh onions More of the “superstar” variety.

Cantaloupe The cantaloupe is also early this year.  Like the corn, we don’t have room to grow the large cantaloupe (though we are growing smaller late-season French varieties).  This is fresh-picked and local and very good quality.

Fresh garlic

Tomatoes

Carrots These are the carrots we were digging in the Elkhart Truth article…

Cucumber

Beans

Down on the farm…

Last week Ben and Zach, a summer intern, went on a field trip to Horse Progress Days in Topeka for a produce equipment demonstration.  While we farm with tractors, many of our implements are the same as those used by horse farmers.  In fact, horse farmers sometimes innovate tools and equipment that we tractor farmers later pick up on and use!

In this first picture, a horse walks up a treadmill which powers an ice cream maker!

Zach looks small next to this oxen. They're both hard workers, though.

Recipe of the week…

This week, some sweet corn tips:

The most popular way to cook fresh sweet corn on the cob is boiling it.  Some people like to start with a large pot of cold water, add the corn and bring to a boil. When the water comes to a rapid boil, the corn is done.

We start by boiling the water first and then add the corn and cook for about 5-10 minutes, until the kernals are bright.

Don’t add salt to the water. It the corn when it cooks.

Don’t cool off hot corn by running under cold water. It will make the corn soggy.

Don’t overcook or the kernels will get hard and the corn will loose some of its sweet flavor.

History

There are more than 200 varieties of sweet corn!  Newer breeds are sweeter and sweeter every year.  While field corn (for animals and cooking/baking) has been around for centuries, sweet corn for fresh eating is relatively new, dating back to the 1600s.  It is said to have been cultivated by Iroquois Indians.