John's Farm Update: When will our corn be ready?

As I am writing this update to you, we are once again coming out of a large rain event, and like last summer’s drought, this will always have an impact on crop yield and quality.  Weather extremes are always what create the challenge in farming. As summer begins, better weather is forecasted. I hope we roll along, continuing the planting, cultural, and harvesting practices for the over thirty crops we grow to sell in our farm market.

Speaking of harvesting, our field crew is now picking some of the best shelling peas I can recall in a long time.   They’re also now picking our broccoli, cauliflower, summer and zucchini squash, strawberries, and we just started picking our sugar snap peas.  Harvesting continues in our tomato greenhouses, which enables us to provide you with fresh, flavorful tomatoes before our field tomatoes are ready later in the summer.

 Our seasonal field crew looks strong with many new faces showing up to join the veterans with plenty of work to do planting, weeding and harvesting!

The most common question we are asked every year is, “When will the corn be ready?” “Old timers” used to say corn grew well if it was “knee high by the 4th of July.” This would mean corn would not be ready until well into August.  But don't worry!

Perhaps you noticed all of the covers we use on many of our early crops.  This allows us to exceed the old timer corn forecast.  There is four foot high tasseling corn in our first planted field because of this treatment.  This crop is growing on a parcel of land we do not own, but is loaned to us by a generous landowner, and has exceptionally good drainage, sandy soil, and a southerly slope. We’re not ready to give a date when we will be picking it, but stay tuned for updates!

Elsewhere on our farm, all of our departments are very busy and staffed by hard-working, dedicated workers who are looking forward to seeing you this summer.   So until then, here’s hoping for warmth and plenty of sunshine to come our way!