Corn's Ready

Last week we harvested three sacks of corn for the food bank with about thirty ears in each sack. In late spring, it was the first thing we planted and the young plants looked a bit forelorn, the only green tips sprounting in the entire half acre. Soon we sowed a second planting. Once the first batch was six-eight inches tall, hail hit and shredded the leaves but corn is a tenacious plant and it rallied as you can see.  
 
 
Corn is actually a type of grass or grain and not a vegetable at all. The average ear has sixteen rows and averages about 800+ kernels per ear. Each thread of silk is attached to a potential kernel. If you sometimes see ears that are only partially filled out, poor pollination is the reason. Poor pollination can occur if corn isn't planted in blocks or if at that critical time, there is drought, hail or insect dammage. Luckily our dammage occured early and we're now able to add fresh sweet corn to our harvests.