WE’RE CELEBRATING THE RETURN OF SWEET CORN AFTER A CHALLENGING YEAR
We’re encouraging Kiwis to embrace the taste of summer and grab some freshly harvested sweet corn as it is one of the last seasonal vegetables available and only here for a couple of months.
This weekend, we handpicked the first of our Gisborne grown sweet corn, now on its way to the supermarket aisles across the country.
Sweet corn is such an important part of a Kiwi summer so the team have been working hard to make sure corn would be in stores for the all important week before Christmas.
Growers have been in a war against the weather for the last year and finally a change in weather patterns means good news for all of us. A greater supply of fresh produce is now hitting the fresh aisles meaning better value at the till for customers.
All the weather predictions for El Nino are promising to bring us more sunshine, heat and wind, and warmer weather into autumn, which would be a welcome change says our general manager of farming, Gordon McPhail.
“Sunshine and dry weather makes it a lot easier for us to manage the farm. We can lock in planting and harvesting schedules better in dry weather and our produce schedules are quicker during the warmer months. We have plenty of good irrigation equipment, in fact it’ll make a nice change to actually be able to use the machines this summer!
“Thanks to an amazing August in Gisborne, which was one of the hottest on record, we were able to successfully plant the first of our corn harvest. Even though we’ve had more rain than we’d have liked, the days have been warmer and cooler nights means that the sweetness has been locked into the crop,” he says.
We’re one of the biggest growers of sweet corn in the country and we trial different varieties of corn each year to ensure that we’re growing the right variant for Gisborne’s climate and Kiwis palette.
“Our corn is all about making sure we have the best tasting, sweet and creamy corn. We know much Kiwis love their sweet corn so it’s important to us that every cob is packed full of flavour. We hand-pick every cob to ensure we are only delivering the best quality corn.”
Sweet corn is the taste of summer and one of the last true seasonal vegetables available, so make sure you celebrate its arrival and make the most of this delicious veggie this summer season.
Gordon encourages you not to pull back the husk in store to check the kernels as it dries out the corn quicker.
“A great tip for checking the freshness of the corn is to look for a cob that has a tight green husk and is rounder and fatter at the ends,” he says.
Carmel Ireland from 5 + A Day encourages us to buy a rainbow of vegetables and corn is an easy and tasty way to get more colours into your diet.
“Not only does sweet corn taste good, but it’s also great for you too. Corn is packed full of antioxidants and great for healthy vision. It’s also a great source of fibre, rich in folic acid and vitamin C. Plus kids love it so it’s an easy way to add another vegetable into their diet.
Kiwis can’t get enough of summer produce and sweet corn is consistently one of the most popular vegetables brought every year.