Recipe: How to Grow Baby Corn

Hi Gloria.

I believe you are thinking of baby corn = Chinese baby corn. These are tiny ears of corn that are eaten cob and all. Asian cooks like to add them to stir-fried dishes, and they often show up in salad bars. It's hard to find them fresh, but many markets sell them in cans or jars.

Here is an article (from Oregon State University Extension and Experiment Stations) that provides details regarding growing your own baby corn.

HOW TO GROW BABY CORN

CORVALLIS - If you have a garden at home and grow corn, then you might want to try growing and harvesting fresh "baby" corn this summer.

Baby corn, those tiny ears of corn popular in Asian cooking and a favorite in salad bars across the United States, is largely imported from east Asia. It is usually processed and sold in cans or jars.

Gardeners can harvest baby corn from field, regular, sugary enhanced or super sweet corn varieties, explained Bill Mansour, Oregon State University vegetable crops specialist. But be aware - sweeter varieties of corn do not produce sweeter baby corn. The corn ears are harvested before pollination and also before sugar has been stored in the kernels.

A few seed companies offer special baby corn varieties, grown solely for baby corn. These varieties are just as big as regular corn plants - they are not dwarf corn plants. If baby corn varieties were allowed to mature, they would look like a typical medium-sized ear of field or sweet corn.

Home gardeners can grow and harvest baby corn by harvesting the tiny ears on regularly planted corn. Any variety will work. Plant corn seed much closer together than usual - sow each seed about four inches apart in the row. Keep the row spacing to the normal 30 to 36 inches apart. Baby corn ears are best harvested when they are two to four inches long and one-third to two-thirds of an inch in diameter, whether grown with a regular or close spacing pattern.

To harvest baby corn at the perfect time takes practice. You might need to harvest a few at different stages each day for a few days to learn exactly when the baby corn is at the perfect stage for you. Start by harvesting ears where silk appears that day. Each ear may reach this stage at a different time on each plant, so you'll have to watch your plants closely.

Also, corn grows so quickly, that timely harvest is crucial. In an extra day or two, the corn can grow larger than you might like for baby corn, giving a tougher and larger ear than might be good in a stir-fry dish or salad.

Refrigerate your corn, with husks on, immediately after harvest if you don't use it right away. Baby corn can be pickled or canned, or blanched and frozen.

Baby corn has fewer pest problems than full-sized ears of corn. Corn ear worms and cucumber beetles generally do their damage later, when the corn ear is filling out and maturing.

Test crops of baby corn grown at Washington State University in western Washington in 1997 showed that growing corn under a floating row cover for the first couple weeks cover may advance harvest over growing it uncovered. The varieties "Baby" and "Jubilee" outperformed eight other varieties tested. But most any sweet (su) corn variety will work well as baby corn.

Also, according to information from University of Minnesota, starchy feed corn, with a tendency to grow multiple ears, also works well as baby corn.

The following varieties are a sampling of those sold and advertised by seed companies as suitable for growing and harvesting as baby corn: Little Indian, Baby, Golden Midget, Glacier, Miniature Hybrid, Baby Asian, Baby Blue, Bo Peep, and Strawberry Popcorn.

Baby corn has not been commercially produced in the United States because it has to be harvested and processed by hand. But small local farms are starting to become interested in producing baby corn for local fresh markets.

A WSU Food Safety Adviser Program recipe for pickled baby corn:

-Blanch baby corn ears for 30 - 45 seconds in boiling water or steam.
-Cool in air. Pack into pint or half-pint jars. Add one-half teaspoon salt per pint.
-Cover with mixture of one part water and one part vinegar, leaving one-quarter inch head space.
-Add spices, if desired.
-Process in simmering hot (180 - 190 degrees F) water bath for 15 minutes.

By Carol Savonen
SOURCE: Bill Mansour