Curious what goes into producing the corn you buy? Here is a quick look from start to finish what it looks like.
Overview
The sweet corn crop starts in a very expensive bag of seed
The corn is planted in stages so it is ready at different times
These are 30 inch rows that are 1/4 mile long
Weed control and nitrogen are applied at this stage
When the silks appear, it is about 3 weeks until its ready
The silks are attached to a tiny ear
Once the corn matures, it is ready to pick and looks like this
We pick alongside a hayrack that holds big cloth bags
The corn is thrown against a backboard and slides into the bags
Each bag holds about 100 dozen...this is 800 dozen or so
The board comes off to gain access to the bags
The picking day starts at 5am and lasts about 3 hours
A loader is used to lift the bags
It speeds up the process of handling this much corn
Bags are either dumped or set directly onto the trailers
We get to our stands and begin the day
We do our best to make the right selections
Hopefully the pile shrinks down by mid afternoon
When we don't sell all of the corn there are plenty of things at home...
...that eagerly await our return
There really isn't anybody or anything that doesn't enjoy sweet corn!
