Sweet corn

Some of you probably think you know what constitutes good sweet corn.  Some of you may even think you've eaten good sweet corn.  Most of you would be wrong.

Unless, that is, you've put the pot of water on to boil, gone out to the field & picked some ears of corn, stripped them on the way back to the house, and plunged them into the boiling water for exactly 5 minutes.

Fresh is hugely important for good sweet corn.  Maturity (ripeness) of the ears is also hugely important.  Most corn that I have purchased in the past 10 years -- from Farmers' Markets and farm stands both -- has been over-ripe.  If the kernels don't pop when you bite into them, if they aren't crisp, it's over-ripe.

And most hugely important of all: variety.  There are literally hundreds of sweet corn varieties.  The new varieties are called 'super sweets.'  And they are pretty much all to be avoided at any cost because they taste like candy, but not like corn.

Farmer Bill grows 2 main corn varieties.  The early variety is a bi-colored corn called Temptation.  It is sweet, but not super sweet, and the ears are on the small side.  But it is really very good.  The 2nd variety is a 'heritage' corn called Jubilee.  Jubilee is the corn Farmer Bill's father raised for the canning factory in the 1950s.  It is a traditional all-yellow corn with large slender ears, and a most excellent corn flavor, and it is what we try to freeze for our winter use.  But don't buy Jubilee and expect to keep it all week in your refrigerator.  Because it is an old variety it hasn't been modified to keep its sugars from turning to starch.  If you keep it more than 2 days it will be starchy and tough.  There is a 3rd variety, with a number for a name (it's escaping me right now, I'll add it in later).  It's a sweeter variety like Temptation.  And like Temptation it tastes great and will keep a bit longer in your fridge.

If you ever get the chance, eat a really good ear of sweet corn picked fresh from the field. 

Or maybe you shouldn't, because it will spoil you for ever eating restaurant or grocery store corn again... you'll only be able to eat sweet corn in July, August, and September for the rest of your life.