It was a pretty terrible season for strawberries, at least those which I tried. I think all of the rain and the lack of sun conspired to result in a lack of flavor and pop. I am wondering if corn is headed the same way. We had some corn on the cob from Russo’s last night. I didn’t do the shopping so I’m not certain where it was from, however during dinner I remarked that it was the worst piece of corn I had ever tasted. One bite and I could eat no more, it had absolutely no flavor! My wife tended to agree. I know it is a bit early and this may have not been local corn, but I haven’t even had anything halfway decent.
It’s been a screwy growing season. I have been out of town a lot and as a result my garden is completely overgrown. I am fearful that disease is going to spread among the tomato plants. lettuce and greens grew well earlier in the summer at least, and the initial cucumber harvest is good.
This is just far too early for decent corn. As long as the nights are warm, the corn doesn’t develop the right flavor.
Our raspberries were fabulous, and plentiful this year. Sadly, a robin has discovered them, so I suspect that our harvest [for humans] is over. All of our herbs are doing extremely well as well. Tomatoes are coming along, but we don’t expect anything this early.
@uni, probably too early to tell about corn. We just had some decent native corn–likely from Western MA–that I picked up at Jones Farm in Chelmsford. Agree that strawberries were a bust this year. Keeping our fingers crossed for local corn (and blueberries and peaches).
Had very good corn from Whole Foods (10 cents an ear), over the 4th holiday. Mostly grilled it. Everything tastes great off the charcoal.
Enjoyed,
CocoDan
Haven’t tried any local corn yet, but I’ve been getting local strawberries from ward’s berry farm (they have a once weekly market here at the hospital where I work), and they’ve been awesome.
yours from Whole Foods was far better than ours, although we grilled over charcoal was well. It was from Florida, I think, and we thought it was possibly the most bland corn we’ve ever eaten, short of canned many decades ago.
Think local. Once picked, sugars in the kernel start being converted to starch. Unless corn picked in FLA is FedEx’d, it’s going to be at a real disadvantage. The Iowa Farm Bureau tells us keeping the husk on helps slow the process. My grandmother’s philosophy was to get the water boiling, THEN pick the corn.
I bought some from NICEWICZ FAMILY FARM this morning at the Union Square Market. Their early season corn is the best. [Their late season corn is the best too.] Not a sweet corn, which we really like, but a true corn flavor. Of course, the corn will get sweeter when we start having cooler evenings.
Local corn from Parlee’s Farm in Chelmsford featured in our dinner tonight. We went over this afternoon for pick-your-own blueberries and were happy also to discover their first corn for sale. Very agreeable though I thought it could be a tad sweeter, and thanks to your explanation, now I know the warm nights are probably the cause.
Local corn around here (CT) usually doesn’t begin to show up in volume and good ear size until early August. It differs from year to year but with the cool soil this late spring it might be a later harvest. That being said, I find the quality of the super sweet varieties that are shipped from FL & GA get better every year. It doesn’t have the softer texture of local corn but it has good, long lasting sweetness.
picked up 3 ears (for $1) from drumlin farms @ the union square farmers market yesterday. should have waited. not awful enough to spit out, but not at all sweet.
Got some from Ward’s Berry Farm last Wednesday (which does a farm market on Wednesdays here at work), and the kernels were small, but the corn was sweet and very good.
The peaches from Kimball were great. Took a while to ripen on the counter, but excellent flavor and texture. So nice after not having any peaches at all last summer.
