Valley Bounty: Corn

Corn on the cob has a sort of Norman Rockwell quality about it. It’s one of relatively few foods that can capture some of the feelings about summer in New England that I remember having as a kid. There’s something about the little ritual of shucking ears before dinner, the cut-grass smell of fresh corn husks, and the careful-but-messy process of trying to apply pats of butter to a cylinder with a butter knife that seem to lend the summertime a familiar potency, if only for a few minutes. With that in mind, I’m always excited to see fresh, local corn on the cob show up at local farmers’ markets, retailers, and in my farm share.

I’m personally of the opinion that the only foods that should be boiled are pasta and hard boiled eggs.  For corn I prefer the grill (or the apartment dweller’s next best option, the broiler), which lends the corn a little char to complement its sweetness. You can cut grilled corn off the cob and add it to salads, soups, and burritos, or combine with diced tomato, red onion, lime juice, cilantro, and jalapeno (seeded or unseeded) for a delicious salsa.

Valley Bounty is written by Brian Snell of CISA (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture)