Sweetcorn does not like strong winds. In fact, gardener’s don’t like strong winds! Our garden is really pretty sheltered but a couple of days ago we had a whole day of blustery weather and this is the result!
Sweetcorn is very shallow rooted and even though they were planted in a block towards the back of our veg plot, the wind still managed to blow a lot of them over. Looks like it’s sweetcorn for dinner for the next few days.
It’s been a long wait but the sweetcorn is now ready. The tassles have turned brown and when we’ve pierced one of the kernels the liquid coming out is milky, which means that the corn is ready to pick. It’s absolutely true that homegrown sweetcorn is a revelation. It is beautifully sweet and crunchy, a far far cry from the corn you buy in the shops. The secret is to have your pot of water boiling before you go and pick your sweetcorn. It’s then a mad dash to get your cobs into the pan as quickly as you can. Once you’ve picked the cobs the sugars in the sweetcorn start turning to starch, and you lose the sweetness, so you want them cooking as quickly as you can. We usually get the kids to give us a helping hand peeling them to speed up the process – it’s all part of the fun and they love getting involved. It’s great pulling back the green leaves to reveal the golden yellow kernels below. We cook ours for about 4 minutes so that they’ve still got plenty of bite, and them smother them in butter. Eating sweetcorn is very seasonal (just 3 weeks for us) but because of this it is something we really look forward to each year.
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