Corn this year

[Happy Gourmand]

I got some of the nicest looking and best corn I ever had this Labor Day Weekend. I also got some of the worst.
The best came from Hannafords in Gilford, the sign says it was from Pearl Farm, which I believe is in Belmont or at least close by. Nice big full ears with no sign of pest damage. This was on Sunday. 5 for $1.
On Saturday, i was on my way back from boating and my wife asked me to stop at Picnic Rock Farm which is very close to where our cottage is. Upon entering the stand, I was greeted by a lady at the register and a man standing by the corn bin. Before I got to see the corn, I asked how it was and the response was "excellent", but when I approached the bin, I noticed that the tops of every piece had been cut off. The gentleman tending the bin explained that they didn't spray and some sort of summer wind from the South brought in some sort of worm/insect that got to all of his corn.I think he called them ear bud worms or something like that. As it was too late/I was too tired to go elsewhere, I decided to give it a shot....at $ .50 an ear, but WAIT, he had a bag of 16 that he would give me for half price. They were small, not fully developed and some were very irregular. They did taste OK though...not real good, but not too bad. $ .25/ear after discount.
I like to support local businesses and local farmers, even though I know that I will pay a premium at the local stands over what i pay at the supermarket. Howcome that nasty Southern Warm wind so badly affect one crop and not another just a few miles away? Could it be that Picnic Rock Farms was trying to salvage a crop that maybe should have gone into silage or otherwise destroyed?
This experience sure put a bad taste in my mouth for this local farm stand.

[Lucy Goose]

I found the same issue yesterday at a farm in Tuftonboro. So I picked through til I found a few that were not damaged. The corn tasted great though!

[Janet]

We had delicious corn from Moulton Farms all through our stay, not to mention the great pies!

[Tagdot]

Corn earworms , Moths lay there eggs in the corn silk, The eggs hatch in 2 days and start eating.

[ishoot308]

We got corn at Greens and Beans twice this year and both times it was terrible. We said the same thing "it shouldn't be sold". Same thing happened to us last year, We started buying it at a small side of the road farm stand in Manchester and it was delicious every time so far!

Dan

[magicrobotmonkey]

The way I look at it is if the corn has worms, I know it's not covered in pesticides! Honestly, I've had corn from most of the local farms this summer and it's really easy to see who uses pesticides and who doesn't. Any farm not using pesticides has worse worms than I've seen before so I think we was right about the wind bringing them in. That said, the Pearl Farm corn is excellent, but it worries me a little thinking about all the chemicals on it.

[tummyman]

We had two batches from a local farm bought @ Heath's this summer....one was very good as we decided to try it. The second batch was pure garbage. Tossed out 18 ears we cooked for a large family gathering. Would be embarrassed to serve it to a cow. I got my money back. Went back to Moulton's Farm and found theirs to be the usual reliable and tasty corn. Will not venture to the supermarket stores again for corn. Just too risky.

[SAMIAM]

The worms don't hurt corn at all.....you just cut off the end and it's fine.
Most veggies have some kind of critters crawling on them and I'd much rather deal with that than pesticides.Hey.....bugs have to eat, too !

[Belmont Resident]

I've found that like the really good meats you get from the butcher shops, prices on corn have gone up so much that I rarely buy fresh and just stick with frozen, and we get the butcher shop meats for a special occasion.
We love the corn when it is good but with fuel and everything else going up and up you got to make the dollar stretch.
Now even Shaws and Hannaford have gone way up on the fresh corn they sell.

Thinking of cutting back on TP:eek: :eek: :eek:

[BroadHopper]

Corn varies from the beginning to end of the season from the same farm and varies from farm to farm. I get all my produce from the farmer's market on Thursdays downtown Laconia. I've seen them all and they do price accordingly. If I find produce a bit high. I say so and they do discount. It also saves money driving to farm stands.

I pretty much stop buying meat and poultry and buy a lot of seafood. I notice all protein are price about the same these days. Seafood is a lot healthier for you. Ever tried the salmon burgers at Sam's? With lettuce, tomatoes and mango salsa it beats beef/turkey burgers and beef/pork/turkey dogs! I even make a salad green, break up and spread a salmon burger on top with NH maple viniagrette! Yum!

[patman]

I've gotten some really REALLY good corn at Spider Web Gardens in the past couple of weeks. Depending on how picked-over the stock is, some of the ends have worms on them, but...cut the tip off (circumcise? :D ) and they are just fine.

[RLW]

It is funny after reading many post and the the word worm in the corn. Myself I bet I have eaten better than 25 ears and with all my company and family being here during the corn season (over 100 ears)we were just commenting last night that it was funny we haven't seen a single worm in our fresh corn and was wondering what reason was for the great looking and tasting corn. Do you have an answer???:)

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