How Sweet It Is! Fresh Southern Supersweet Corn The Revolution in Corn Evolution The Cultivated Cob Harvest Time Corn-Y Facts To Husk or Not to Husk Nutrition - Corn Equivalents Corn In Your Recipe Freezing Supersweet Corn How to Skillet or Steam Cook Corn How to Boil Corn How to Boil and Hold Corn How to Microwave Corn How to Roast Corn How to Grill Corn How to Cook Corn Kernels Fresh Corn on the Cob with Chili Butter Herbed Butter for Fresh Corn (2) Cilantro Lime Butter for Fresh Corn Soups and Salads Creamy Fresh Corn Chowder Fresh Corn on the Cob Salad Fresh Corn and Mozzarella Salad Southwestern Raw Corn and Black Bean Salad Main Dishes Caribbean Corn and Vegetable Bake Mexican Corn and Shrimp Skillet Dinner Fresh Corn and Seafood Skillet Clambake Side Dishes Chili-Roasted Fresh Corn with Assorted Vegetables Wine and Butter-Sauteed Fresh Corn Stewed Fresh Corn with Tomatoes

HOW SWEET IT IS!
FRESH SOUTHERN SUPERSWEET CORN

Years of ongoing research and experimentation with corn varieties have yielded a golden treasure from Florida, Georgia and Alabama: Today's fresh Southern Supersweet Corn. It has the unique ability to stay sweet and tender longer than any other corn variety.

One luscious bite and you'll discover that this corn, available during the months of October through July (and most plentiful in April and May), has all the qualities we expect from "local" corn in late summer. Even when shipped long distances from the warm climes of its origin, or refrigerated for a few days at home, Southern Supersweet Corn has exceptionally sweet taste and tenderness. This is due to advances in breeding that prevent supersweet corn's sugars from turning to starch as quickly as with traditional varieties, coupled with the miracle of quick field cooling and stalk-to-store refrigeration.

THE REVOLUTION IN CORN EVOLUTION

Corn varieties are constantly evolving. Case in point: A century ago, it took Americans 45 minutes to an hour to boil fresh corn because they were actually eating young or "green" field corn. When sweet corn varieties with a lot less starch started to appear at the turn of the century, the ideal cooking time dropped to 30 minutes. Fast forward to Florida in 1948, where a gene was isolated -- the "supersweet gene"-- that produced corn with a higher sugar content, allowing it to stay sweeter longer with better keeping properties. Dr. Emil Wolf, professor of plant breeding and genetics at the Everglades Education and Research Center in Florida, was among the first to work with corn hybrids and started the Florida sweet corn breeding program, which among other things explored the commercial potential of this particular gene. Due much to his work, Florida Staysweet (a hybrid with the supersweet gene in it) was created in 1978. Large corn growers around the Everglades helped Dr. Wolf launch the new corn, and in 1980, the corn industry in Florida began to grow corn varieties based on this supersweet gene. The Southern Supersweet Corn of today is even better than it was a few years ago because of ongoing research.

Many hybrids of the same "supersweet type" of corn have been developed to thrive in specific growing regions (i.e., southern Florida, Georgia, etc.) which explains how corn varieties differ somewhat in flavor and texture. Research has also developed a palette of colors in the corn grown today; about 60% is yellow, 20% white and 20% bi-color.

THE CULTIVATED COB

Florida is the largest grower of Southern Supersweet Corn although much comes from Georgia and Alabama as well. (FYI -- from April through December, California is an important source of corn, most of it supersweet. Furthermore, during the traditional corn season of July through September, much of the corn grown locally is the supersweet variety).

From seed to finished product, corn takes 80 to 90 days. In order to provide us with corn availability that spans the season, farmers plant seeds sequentially from July through late March, enabling them to harvest from late September through the end of July. Some areas have two harvest seasons: fall and spring; extreme south Florida has only a winter harvest. The largest harvest is in May, June and July because the corn thrives with longer, warmer days and moderate nights.

Corn grows slowly for the first 30 days, reaching from 18 to 24 inches high. Then the growth accelerates: stalks expand vertically, the tassel (male flower part) and ear (female part) emerge and take shape, and the silk starts to sprout from the ear. Pollination takes place when pollen from the tassel becomes airborne and comes in contact with the silk. Every strand of silk must make contact with pollen or you'll find gaps in the rows of kernels, although this occasionally happens if the weather isn't quite right as well.

Three weeks before harvest, an integrated pest management program is started to protect the corn from insects, worms and disease damage.

HARVEST TIME

Southern Supersweet Corn is picked, packed, chilled and shipped within 12 hours -- a key factor in its high quality. Some of the corn is mechanically harvested but the majority of the crop is still hand picked, and fed into a mobile packing facility that moves through the fields. Here, individuals walk between rows of corn, putting ears onto a belt, where they are graded according to size, then packed into crates and sent to a hydrocooler, a cold water bath. Within 30 minutes, this brings the corn's temperature down to 38° to 40°F -- optimum for keeping corn fresh. Removing field heat quickly is crucial to maintaining quality.

The corn is then shipped covered with ice, in refrigerated trucks that keep moisture high to avoid dehydration. All this TLC is definitely paying off: Southern Supersweet Corn is so popular that in 1997 the growers shipped over 14 million crates, each crate filled with 48 ears; that's 672 million ears!

CORN-Y FACTS

Corn has been helping to sustain cultures for a very long time. Fossilized grains of corn pollen, believed to be more than 60,000 years old, have been unearthed by archeologists in Mexico. In El Salvador, corn remnants were found that date back 14 centuries. Corn was also the dominant crop of the Incas and Mayas. The Aztecs, who revered corn so much they proudly called themselves "corn eaters," paid yearly tribute to Montezuma with bushels of corn -- good as gold!

There's no disputing corn's value to American settlers, who were taught to grow and use it by Native Americans. In fact, ears of corn hung by a home's entrance came to symbolize a triumph over hunger by indicating a plentiful harvest.

The first reference to sweet corn in the US is in Thomas Jefferson's garden book of 1810. Here he writes that the corn was sweet only when just picked, quickly turning to starch. In fact, early cookbooks advised cooks to take their kettles of boiling water to the fields to capture the corn's full flavor.

TO HUSK OR NOT TO HUSK

When shopping for fresh supersweet corn, look for ears that have been properly displayed in refrigerated bins. A light brown color on the outer husks does not indicate bad corn; ears that are well-covered with plump, not too mature kernels are best.

Immaturity is indicated by soft, undeveloped kernels. Such kernels lack full corn flavor when cooked. Overmaturity is indicated by large, excessively firm kernels that are usually deeper in color than at the most desirable stage. Worm injury is not serious when confined to tips.

Because the husks draw moisture from the kernels, some retailers have begun to offer customers tray-packed corn which has already been husked, then wrapped tightly in plastic. As a result of the labor involved, this corn costs somewhat more but it is actually the optimal way to purchase supersweet corn.

NUTRITION: GET AN EARFUL

For all its sweet, satisfying flavor, one medium ear of corn, surprisingly, has only 75 calories. Corn contains complex carbohydrates, is low in fat and sodium and, like all vegetables, has no cholesterol. It is also a good source of vitamin C, thiamin and folic acid, a vitamin recently found to be lacking in the diet of many Americans.