Fenik’s Sweet Corn is open for the summer

Patrick Fenik wants you to know his family’s fruit and vegetable stand sells more than just their famous sweet corn.

Fenik’s Sweet Corn, 6413 Lake Ave. in Elyria, which has been operated by the Fenik family since the late-1940s, opened July 7 for the season and its eponymous crop has become legendary in the area for its quality.

But Fenik said their operation is more than just corn.

“We have onions, tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, cantaloupe,” he said. “We’ll have watermelon; we’ll have peaches in the future.”

Fenik said the peaches his family’s stand will sell won’t be grown by them, but will be sourced from a “good grower.”

“We grow everything except the stone fruits,” he said.

Fenik’s produce is picked fresh every morning, rain or shine, by him, his family and some local teenagers who help out, he said.

Usually, the stand opens for business a few days after Independence Day and will remain open until Halloween.

“So, we will be here up until pumpkin time, until we have a significant frost which is about mid- to late-October,” Fenik said. “So, we’ll have all the fall stuff.”

“The fall stuff” is pumpkins, gourds and cornstalks, Fenik said.

Tragedy struck the family-run business last year as the stand was toppled by strong winds before the growing season began.

“We had a microburst on March 1 last year,” Fenik said. “We rebuilt a new facility.

“It’s much more accommodating, it’s much bigger and it’s much more people-friendly. You can maneuver.”

Fenik said this year, the stand is carrying a much larger selection of produce to offset the cost of the new facility.

The stand is open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week.

“We have a lot of people that work late nowadays with the different shifts, so we are usually here until 7 p.m.,” Fenik said.

KEITH REYNOLDS — THE MORNING JOURNAL Patrick Fenik shows the sweet corn that made his family’s produce stand, 6413 Lake Ave. in Elyria, legendary among locals for over 70 years.