Corn

We normally plant about 30 plants per year.  We love to pick the ears whole and eat them freshly barbequed.  Any surplus ears will be frozen ready for winter.  The goats love the shucks and the pigs love the cooked cobs.  Corn is pretty easy to grow but make sure you don't plant it where it can shade other crops, they get to about 2m tall.

Planting, care and maintenance

We plant our Corn in May and may plant another crop in August depending on space. We either buy the seeds or ideally dry a few cobs from the previous year. We find that we get the best results by chitting first. This involves placing the seeds on damp kitchen paper in a plastic container, covering with more kitchen paper, putting the lid on the container and leaving in a warm dark place until they all sprout, normally about 5-7 days.

We then plant out in rows 50cms apart in blocks so that pollination can take place. The chitted corn will have a root and a sprout.  Make a hole and tuck the root carefully done inside and try to get the sprout below ground as well.  Cover, press down and water in, they will normally appear above ground after 48 hours or so.  We don't crowd corn as the cobs will be crap if you do.  The rows make things easier when watering as the plants can tend to get a bit 'in yer face'. Replant as soon as possible if you notice any slackers.

Harvesting

After flowering the cobs will start to ready themselves.  They will be ready when the horrible tassle things at the top of each cob die off.  Ensure you give the plant a good shake whilst K is underneath as she will be covered in crap instantly, very funny, well to me anyway.  To test if the cob is ready peel a little bit of the ear back at the top and squeeze a kernel.  If it's juicy and milky then it's ready.  Snap it off and fire up the barbeque.

The best way to enjoy fresh corn is to barbeque almost straight from the plant.  Remove the ears from the plant and place in water, do not strip the leaves.  Fire up the barby and when ready take the corn from the water give it a vigorous shake and plonk it on the grill.  Turn regularly in a professional way until it is hissing and fizzing nicely and the outer leaves are charred.  Pass to K who will bravely lose skin stripping off the leaves which get dumped in a bag for the goats.  Smother the corn with lashings of butter, pepper and a bit of salt and gorge till you can eat no more.

Cooking and Freezing

If you can't eat all that you have just vacuum seal each cob including the leaves and drop in the freezer until required.  Defrost in water for a few hours then barbeque as above.  We don't tend to strip the kernels anymore as we couldn't be arsed to blanch them.  If you don't blanch they are soggy and naff incidentally.