I’ve been muttering lately that it wasn’t worth growing sweet corn – the full size kind, in this country. It’s always touch and go that it will ripen in time, it gets blown down, the slugs climb up it and eat the silks.. it takes a lot of space and isn’t worth it.
What is worthwhile. a sure winner is baby sweetcorn. The plants are tall and strong, there are 3 or 4 cobs per plant, and of course, because they don’t need fertilizing, you don’t have to grow them in blocks etc, or worry about the silks being eaten. Although you can see in the picture, the plants are strong tall and uneaten. Pretty too. And fresh baby corn is so lovely (a fair few get eaten raw in the field.) Yes, is is a lot of plant for a few cobs, but they are no hassle – once planted, they do the rest. And the sheep and pigs love the greenery, so nothing wasted.
Then today, I took another despondent peek at the full size sweetcorn, only to find it was ready – We picked a cob each, steamed it, applied lots of butter and scofffed. Oh my. Yes it is worth growing sweetcorn in this country. The taste of fresh sweet juicy corn is wonderful, and beats the socks off anything you can buy. Each one was full of kernels, and lovely and yellow. We ate them with the last barbecue of the season (oh yes, another one).
Looks like sweetcorn is going to feature on the menu for a while now.
