Farmer Friday: More Sweet Corn

Butter and Sugar, Silver Queen, and Bodacious all have one thing in common, they’re simply delicious. No matter the type of sweet corn you’re eating, everyone can agree nothing beats family farm grown freshly picked corn – especially loaded with Cabot Butter!

Many of our Cabot Farmers say that they love meeting their sweet corn customers and hearing how much their community members enjoy the produce that the Cabot farmers put so much work into growing. Farm families head out to the corn field in the early mornings, rain or shine, muggy or clear, and always being on the lookout for raccoons and deer that found a place to sleep the night before. Walking by you can hear the laughter of the pickers and of course the friendly competition of who can pick the finest ears. With their arms and buckets filled, covered in water from head to toe from that morning’s dew on the corn stalk’s leaves, the corn pickers head to the truck to bring their first load to the farm stand. But the most important part when the morning picking is done and the stand is full, everyone is always asking “what’s for breakfast?”

Sweet corn is a tradition and legacy for our farm families, and they are happy to produce a great local product for your family’s table. It is a wonderful way for your family to meet and get to know the farmers that help to produce the Award Winning Cabot Cheddar Cheese.

This week, we feature a few more of our farm families that sell sweet corn. We also have a full list of farms in New York and New England that you can visit here.

Kelly Barstow of Barstows Longview Farm and Barstow’s Store & Bakery in Hadley, MA

Why did you start selling sweet corn?
“We started selling sweet corn as part of our effort to offer great locally grown products for our community. We sell local sweet corn from the Four Rex Farm, which is just down the road from our 6th generation family farm. The Rex’s pick the corn with the help of many teenagers from the local high school and veteran corn pickers in town. While we don’t grow the sweet corn ourselves, we do enjoy having it for one of our seasonal offerings for our customers. Local sweet corn is a summer favorite. We will get locals and out-of-towners who purchase it by the dozens from our farm store. ”

How many years have you had your farm store?
“We opened up our farm store in 2008. It has now grown to sell ice cream, Cabot cheese, an assortment of seasonal fruits and vegetables, local farm eggs, fresh baked goods, and many more items. Although we have both indoor and outdoor seating areas, we also have a Drive-Thru for those days when you just need to grab your sweet corn and coffee in a hurry!”

Debbie Keene of Conant Acres Farm, in Canton, ME

How long have you been selling sweet corn?
“We’ve done sweet corn for as long as I can remember. I can remember as a kid being in the back of the truck before we were big enough to pick. As soon as the cows get fed and sometimes two and three more times a day we pick fresh corn for the farm stand. The corn is ready a couple of weeks later than people want it to be ready. Everyone wants to know is the corn ready yet?

What other products do you sell direct to consumers?
Starting in 2019, we started to bring the wholesome products that we have used to raise our family into our Country Market.

Insider Knowledge: If you have extra corn left over from dinner you can always freeze it for a later time. Simply cut the kernels off the cob (cooked and cooled) and put the corn into a freezer bag. This way you can have farm fresh sweet corn at all times of the year! My family of four freezes 50 quarts, which lasts us almost all year until we have sweet corn again.

Try some of our Sweet Corn recipes for a summer treat:

Street Corn Salad
Southwestern Corn, Avocado and Pepper Jack Salad