Corn should be knee high by Fourth of July

Published 6:16 pm Wednesday, July 4, 2007

By Staff
I can't help but check out the corn fields as I drive by for the old saying "Knee high by the Fourth of July."
Some are lush green and definitely would tower above a little boy.
There are some fields where the farmer for some reason must have been delayed in planting, or unable to water during a really dry spell. Those stalks of corn just won't make the grade this Thursday.
I think we have a fascination with corn. There is something mysterious in the swaying rows of green.
Watching Field of Dreams you can almost imagine that those long dead baseball players could really walk out of the corn to once again play ball.
There have been many scary movies also which have used corn, such as Children of the Corn, which truthfully I have never seen. I am not a real big fan of scary films, though my daughter used to just love them.
I used to grow sweet corn – Sweet Sue – when I had a large garden. It was so sweet and delicious. They always said to get the pot boiling when you go out to pick. There isn't any fresher corn than that.
One year we had lots of relatives come for Labor Day weekend, just as the corn was ripe for picking. We feasted that whole three days, with some people eating just sweet corn every day.
Now I usually go down Indian Lake Road and buy some at the Silverstone Market. It may have been picked earlier in the day, but it is still delicious.
There are so many good varieties of sweet corn now to choose from. I think the ones which are mixed, white and yellow, are the best. In fact, I don't think I have tasted a bad ear of corn in many years.
Behind our house, the farmer used to alternate between corn and soy beans. The years the corn filled the fields, the kids used to love to run and play in the corn rows.
I never worried about them until the time one boy almost had his head hit by a deer which was also running through the rows.
This area has always had jobs for those teens too young to actually get a full time summer jobs.
I understand detasseling is really hard work. I admire all those young people who would get on a bus in the early morning hours and work in the fields all day to earn some extra money.
When I had to feed a larger family, I would cut the corn off the ears and put it in freezer bags to enjoy the sweet taste in the middle of winter.
I haven't had any corn on the cob yet this year, but I am looking forward to drizzling the butter down the sides and letting it mix in with the sliced tomatoes on my plate.
Of course the butter has been replaced with a non-fat no-trans product, which really doesn't taste bad, but just isn't the same.
I probably should also forego the salt I use to pour all over each ear.
Still, writing this has my mouth watering for this annual homegrown treat.
I sure hope the sweet corn keeps growing quickly so we all can enjoy that first ear of locally grown corn. I can hardly wait.