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AUGUST 6, 2011 -- Corn is a labyrinth.
By far the Western Hemisphere’s most widely harvested crop, the United States alone grows more than 360 million tons annually. An exceedingly versatile grain with a cadre of Washington lobbyists on its side, its uses now range from human feed to animal feed to fuel to alcohol to a quietly ubiquitous sugar substitute found in essentially any given snack in any given vending machine.
Though indigenous to the Americas, hardy green stalks grow on all continents except Antarctica, yet we still ship a substantial amount. In Iowa, a state whose economy is synonymous with corn, a state that also hosts the first presidential primaries, more than half its cash crop is a lucrative export.
Today the magnitude of this native-staple-turned-global-commodity is tough to digest, especially at a carefree summertime backyard barbecue. When a sweet grilled ear complements a cheeseburger or a hot dog that sweet grilled ear represents only a simple American vegetable, not a heavily-politicized, multibillion-dollar, government-subsidized industry.
Whatever definitions the Native’s maize has grown to—as found in the 2007 Aaron Wolff documentary “King Corn” the exploding demand for cheap high fructose corn syrup makes it complicit in the further marginalization of family farms against gargantuan industrialization—it is still an affordably sweet, and depending on one’s preference buttery and salty, part of our collective diet.
Here in Connecticut, northeast of the famed Midwestern “Corn Belt” and all its muscle-bound factory farms, independent growers are ready to harvest. A rainy and cool spring delayed the process, but local agriculturists suggest based on continuing warm weather Litchfield County will see its first seasonal haul as early as next week. And it looks quite fruitful.
“It’s doing well, we’re still at least a week off of picking our own, but the corn looks great,” said Ben March, who helps run March Farm in Bethlehem. “We’re definitely further behind schedule than normal for this time of the year. People start planting in May or June, but the rain and wet weather made it impossible to get into the fields without burying equipment.”
He said the unexpectedly damp planting season delayed numerous produce products on his farm that also grows a variety of fruits such as strawberries, blueberries, peaches and apples. A pummeling hailstorm last month did nothing to help matters, it destroyed the first field of strawberries but the corn was thankfully spared.
To keep the season robust and sustaining through the fall, more planting is likely to come. But once the first round of sweet corn hits a mark of at least eight feet, it’s time to take. Mr. March figures, with some sunny luck it’ll be July 22, and that’s not too long after schedule.
Weather-related tardiness in the fields is indeed a common sentiment, though not a terribly worrisome one. Rick Bunnell, who runs Bunnell Farm in Litchfield, said that his corn took a hit early but is now on the upswing.
“I would say we’ll harvest soon,” he noted, “maybe in another week or so.”
Henry Talmage, the executive director of the Connecticut Farm Bureau, confirmed that an unseasonably wet spring did stunt growth early on, not just in Litchfield County but throughout the state. Truthfully, many of the local farms were lucky, as some lower lying fields had flooding force entire acreages to replant.
“But here in the dog days of summer, things are really picking up,” said Mr. Talmage.
Corn loves hot weather, and is shown to grow faster and healthier as the mercury rises. Regardless, every field is different. Connecticut corn is currently available, it likely came from farms around Connecticut River Valley.
“It’s the source of the most fertile soil in the state,” Mr. Talmage said of farms on the river valley.
But Litchfield County isn’t such a bad place to grow, farming is an integral part of the local rural tradition. Like at Maple Bank Farm in Roxbury, where Howard Bronson has fields of corn ready to harvest, even though he wasn’t completely spared some apprehension this precipitation-heavy spring.
“It’s coming along,” said Mr. Bronson. “It was a little slow in May, May was cool and damp, but we’re catching up quickly now.”
Maple Bank Farm ought to start collecting its corn stalks, Mr. Bronson hopes, by July 23. Like with most operations, the idea is to harvest often during the late summer and fall, so it requires a well-calculated and staggered planting regimen. In fact, as his first seasonal corn harvest will coincide with his final corn planting.
As the warm weather hastens growth, the gaps between plantings lessen throughout the season. As a result, the corn field at Maple Bank Farm resembles a series of green steps and levels.
“In May, that first one didn’t come up for 14 days,” Mr. Bronson noted. “But last week we planted and in five days it was out of the ground.”
His farm usually has a decent yield, he collects at least 500 ears on weekdays. But on Fridays he collects five times that for the farmer’s market, not the laboratory. |
