Sweet corn adds kernels of delight to your table

By Jennifer Graue

Contra Costa Times

The arrival of sweet corn season conjures memories of childhood summers — icy Popsicles, backyard barbecues and bedtimes deferred. So it’s no wonder we grow impatient each year waiting for the arrival of fresh local corn, when each succulent bite has the ability to transport us to a more carefree past.

Lucky for us we’re in the height of the season. Equally lucky is that most of us understand that the negatives associated with mass-produced field corn — used for everything from food filler to ethanol fuel — have nothing to do with the traditional summer treat.

In fact, we’re eating more fresh sweet corn now than we have in decades — about nine pounds per person last year, according to the USDA. One likely reason is our easy access to the corn at its finest, thanks to the growth in the number of farmers markets, which have tripled since 1994.

As Tom Nichol, manager of the San Jose downtown farmers market points out, the fresher, the better.

“The corn is picked hours before it hits the market,” he explains. “That makes it special.”

As soon as corn is picked, the sugars in it begin to turn to starch, so the less time the corn spends sitting around, the sweeter it is and the better it tastes. At Webb Ranch, a 90-year-old family farm that first took root on land leased from Stanford University back in the 1920s, corn is picked two to three times a day at the height of the season, to ensure the corn is at its very freshest when customers stop by.

Webb Ranch normally has corn by the Fourth of July, but the cool, damp spring delayed harvest by a couple of weeks. Tom Hubbard, the farm’s vice president of operations, says the farm uses organic seed, which doesn’t have a protective coating, making it susceptible to mildew in soil that’s too wet or cold.

But another reason we’re eating more corn may be because it’s just getting tastier. More varieties are grown these days, and there’s been a dramatic move away from genetically modified — or GMO — corn, especially on farms such as Webb Ranch and Brentwood’s G&S Farms.

Glenn Stonebarger of G&S Farms devotes 700 acres to corn, and he sets aside some land each year to test hundreds of new varieties. Most of what Stonebarger plants is what he calls high eating-quality corn: hybrid, GMO-free varieties that boast high sugar content, tenderness and extended shelf life.

“I’m amazed at the quality that’s evolved over the last 15 years,” he says, “and how much better it’s getting.”

Hubbard agrees. His favorite is bicolor, a speckled corn with both yellow and white kernels. The very name of another varietal, Ambrosia, gives some clue as to how sweet and heavenly it tastes. Webb Ranch also grows yellow varieties and some white corn to meet consumer demand, although Hubbard makes it clear he grows it somewhat reluctantly.

“White corn,” he says, “is an invasion from the Midwest.”

As for the best way to eat corn, it depends on the expert. Growers such as Hubbard say raw, right out of the field is the only way to go. Stonebarger rarely eats corn at home during the season, because he gets his fill in the field.

“I take bites of corn every single morning,” he says. “I eat two or three ears each day.”

For those of us who buy it and take it home, there’s a tendency to want to fuss with it.

Alison Abbors, the manager of Santa Cruz County, Calif.’s farmers markets, loves pairing it with black beans in a salad. Corn takes Tom Nichol, the San Jose market manager, back to his roots in the South. He likes it saut ed with okra and tomatoes. And Joey Altman, the San Francisco-based chef whose r sum includes multiple James Beard Awards, Food Network stints, and guest judging gigs at the Brentwood Corn Festival, leans toward decadent cheesy corn fritters, and a tomato/basil/corn ragout that’s sublime with grilled chicken or fish.

Or, you can go the simple route: Grill it and serve it Mexican street-food style with a lime-spiked mayonnaise, cotija cheese and chile powder.

Perhaps the best way, though, is to boil it on the cob (no more than a minute), slather it with butter and pretend you’re a kid again, letting the sweet juices and creamy butter run down your chin as you nibble an ear, moving like a typewriter, without ever coming up for air.

CHOOSE YOUR EARS

These days, you can find gorgeous corn at farmers markets and grocery stores, too. Here’s how to choose:

Make sure you buy corn that’s still in its husk

The husk should be brightly colored and tight fitting.

Pull the husk away from the top and poke a kernel to see if it’s juicy.

Wait to shuck the corn until you’re ready to cook it

Don’t freak out if there’s a worm at the top, which occasionally happens late in the season. Just cut that part of the cob off and take comfort in knowing that ear of corn was likely pesticide-free.