That line from a famous song by Rodgers and Hammerstein about a beautiful sunny day could easily be about our East End farms. And there’s nothing that says summer like crunching on fresh-picked cob and tasting those juicy kernels bursting on your tongue. Sweet corn comes in white, golden and bi-color, corn that has white and gold kernels on the same cob. They all taste slightly different, and they’re all delicious.
Eve Kaplan-Walbrecht grows organic sweet corn at her farm, Garden of Eve, in Riverhead. “Sugar Queen and Mirai are some of our favorites,” she says. Her kids found the most amazing way to eat sweet corn: “We pick it when it’s very young, when it’s about four to six inches long,” she says. “Then we just shuck it and eat it whole. You eat the cob and all.” Roasted corn on the cob is also a popular snack at the farm stands.
Corn is a type of grass that was first farmed in Central America more than 6,000 years ago. It’s often planted along with squash and beans in a grouping called the “Three Sisters.” Some unusual types of corn grow up to 40 feet tall! Some corn has black, red, green, purple or orange kernels. In the fall, farm stands like Krupski’s in Cutchogue sell multicolored, dried ears of corn as decorations. Dried corncobs with the husk on can also be used to make corn dolls—it’s easy, go to WikiHow for instructions. Many farms also make mazes through their cornfields. It’s fun to get lost in a corn maze and then find your way out!
Here are a few of the many local farms that have sweet corn, roast corn, and mazes:
Harbes Family Farm & Vineyard on Sound Avenue, Mattituck; Fritz Lewin Farm on Sound Avenue, Baiting Hollow; Gabrielsen’s Country Farm, Main Road, Mattituck; Krupski’s Farm, Main Road, Cutchogue; Hank’s Pumpkintown, Montauk Highway, Watermill; Seven Ponds Orchard, Seven Ponds Road, Watermill
