New Berlin Lions Club’s corn roast at State Fair has a sweet story
PALMYRA – The best way to eat sweet corn? Just picked off the stalk, leaves ripped open like a birthday present, right there in the field, with the weeds tickling your calves, and the sun warming your shoulders, every crunchy bite messy and unapologetic.
If you can’t go to Blane Poulson’s farm, the next best way to eat sweet corn is at the New Berlin Lions Club corn roast stand at the Wisconsin State Fair.
And this particular corn may taste even sweeter when you know it was picked within 24 hours, kept chilled to preserve the freshness and roasted until the sugary kernels are caramelized — and that a portion of the sales is donated to youth groups and clubs.
“We take a lot of pride in that,” said Poulson. “The fact that you see all those people smiling, eating an ear of corn — it’s fantastic. And the money goes for good. The Lions do such a great job.”
The New Berlin Lions Club, established in 1950, has been selling roasted corn at the corner of Central Ave and Second Street, a block west of the Grandstand, for six decades. They’ll be back again on Thursday, serving corn-on-the-cob, or corn shaved off in a cup, to thousands of fairgoers.
Everything about the corn — from the farmers who grow it to the organization that sells it to the volunteers who cook and serve it — has a story.
Poulson Farm, which has been in Palmyra since Blane’s grandfather Leo Poulson established his fields there in 1948, has been planting 20 acres of sweet corn specifically for the New Berlin Lions Club for nearly a decade.
Farmers Blane Poulson and Jon Troiola studied the long-term forecast all winter, and as a result planted a week earlier, in early April, to withstand the cool, rainy spring. They planted it in five different stages, staggered out, so that various rows of corn are becoming ripe right now, and others will continue ripen to throughout the run of the fair, Aug. 1-11, ensuring that the corn delivered there is in its prime.
The corn is also hand-picked daily by a handful of workers, rather than cut by a machine, so there’s a handle on each ear, making it easier to hold and eat.
And the crop is good this year, said Lions Club member Dave Abstetar, judging by the knee-high-by-Fourth-of-July standard. “We had that in June already,” he said.
Poulson said regular watering and irrigation and daily care have brought the crop along, and the July heat spell didn’t hurt.
“We needed the heat,” said Poulson, “because we had such a cool spring.”
At the fair’s stand, volunteers from high school soccer teams and science clubs work alongside New Berlin Lions Club members shucking the corn, roasting it, preparing it with butter and selling it at the register — and in turn the club donates a portion of the average $100,000 annual proceeds back to their teams and clubs. It’s so popular, there’s a waiting list for clubs to work the stand and benefit from its sales.
“We donate to approximately 40 youth groups and 10 other organizations through them working at the fair,” said New Berlin Lions Club president Mary Tatera.