Pick of the crop
Load up on butter and salt in preparation for another corn season. We’ve put together this primer for buying, storing and eating the beloved summer veggie.
Peaches & Cream is the best corn on the cob, right? Not necessarily. In fact, not only is Peaches & Cream a fictional rather than an actual variety of corn, but corn on the cob itself is fraught with more complexity, opinions and interesting sidebars that you’d imagine.
Corn from the Ottawa area is just coming into season. Here is a primer on the beloved summer fare.
THE BACK STORY
Sweet corn, which is what we eat, is a natural mutation of field corn, the stuff grown to feed livestock and for other commercial purposes and occupies huge swaths of farmland in Ontario.
Sweet corn has only been available since the 1700s, according to a University of Kentucky paper on corn production.
In this province, Foodland Ontario says there are dozens of varieties grown, including Earlyvee, Silver Queen and Champ.
They range from early to late-harvest varieties; include yellow, white, and bicolour (yellow and white) kernels — although white is rare in this area — and vary in sugar content, with “supersweet” being the equivalent of a Tim Hortons double-double.
With the advent of supersweet and other hybrids, Golden Bantam, the old staple of table corn, has almost vanished from the consumer market.
THE WORD FROM THE FIELD
The heat and moisture we’ve had should make this summer a good one for corn on the cob, says Giselle Proulx of Proulx Maple & Berry Farm in Cumberland.
However, her production is about a week later than usual because the wet, cold spring meant the farm had to replant.
Like many other farms, she and her family sell both bicolour and yellow corn. They have several varieties of each and are continually experimenting with new hybrids.
The ubiquitous Peaches & Cream isn’t actually a variety at all, says Proulx. “It’s a marketing term. You could have five different (varieties) of yellow-and-white corn, but they all get called Peaches & Cream.”
Because the cobs are usually big and there’s so much marketing hype surrounding Peaches & Cream, people ask for it, she says. “They think they’re getting their money’s worth. If it’s picked fresh, of course, you’ll like it. There’s nothing wrong with it. But yellow corn is a lot sweeter. The cobs are smaller, so that’s a marketing issue, but try it and you’ll see the difference.”
She’s right. We grew corn for our own consumption for many years. We tried Peaches & Cream types more than once and finally stopped. There was just no comparison with the melt-in-your-mouth yellow varieties.
We also found late-maturing corn, the stuff harvested in early September, to be the best — flavourful and almost meaty compared to earlyseason varieties.
NUTRITION
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, one ear of corn has 80 calories (an active female aged 31 to 50 needs 2,250 calories a day, according to Health Canada), one gram of fat or about two per cent of daily requirements, and virtually no sodium.
A single ear also provides 10 per cent of daily fibre requirement.
Adding butter brings the sodium to one per cent of daily needs, but it bumps fat, nearly all of it the unhealthy saturated variety, from two to eight per cent of recommended daily intake.
WHERE TO BUY
You’ll find freshly picked corn at outdoor markets, including Parkdale and the By Ward Market. Roadside stands also dot the area. Shouldice Berry Farm & Market, for example, lists 11 roadside stands in the Ottawa area on its website ( shouldicefarm.com).
Farms often sell at the farm gate and Proulx, for example, celebrates all things yellow by offering group corn roasts.
Grocery stores and health food stores, like Herb & Spice, carry corn, although you’ll need to ask whether it’s from area farms and when it was picked.
HOW TO BUY, COOK & STORE
The sugar in corn starts converting to starch as soon as it’s picked, so fresh is always best.
When buying, Foodland Ontario says to look for bright green, moist husks and silk that is stiff, dark and moist.
You should be able to feel individual kernels by pressing gently against the husk.
Corn sold at reputable roadside stands and the farm gate is picked the same day. Grocery store corn may or may not be that fresh.
If you are not eating the corn as soon as you buy it, refrigerate in a plastic bag for up to three days.
Corn on the cob can be boiled, microwaved or barbecued in the husk or wrapped in aluminum foil.
The Foodland Ontario website ( foodland.gov.on.ca) has instructions for all three methods, although we prefer putting the cobs into boiling water, turning off the heat and letting them sit for a few minutes before eating. The less you cook, the crunchier and sweeter the kernels will be.
Uneaten cobs can be blanched and either frozen whole or the kernels scraped off and frozen for a tasty mid-winter treat. For blanching instructions, visit web.extension.
CHOWING DOWN
There’s no right way to eat corn on the cob except to savour the experience. You can use corn picks to hold the cobs, but since that means you can’t lick the butter and corn juice off your fingers, why would you?
How you eat corn on the cob may reveal your personality. According to a story in the Los Angeles Times, typewriter-style eaters (left to right) are likely to be orderly types possibly prone to obsessive-compulsive disorders.
Children and impulsive people apparently use the random, huntand-peck method.
Personally, I favour the rotary method (eating around the cob) alternating between left and right toward the centre. It keeps all the kernels hot.