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| This year was my first attempt at corn. My place in Western PA's Laurel Highlands is more like New England than Pennsylvania, so I started with Early Sunglow. Got edible ears in August 4th. They were smallish. Plenty sweet, but the texture I found somewhat mealy.
So what did I do wrong to get a mealy texture? I microwaved the ears in the husk. Did I cook too long or too hot? There was white sap when I popped a raw kernel, so I don't think I picked them too soon, even if the ears were small. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Um, your basic problem was you grew 'Early Sunglow' -- a pretty reliable early variety that's been around forever, but its culinary merits are pretty lacking. Tends to be kind of flavorless, mushy, blah. In other words, I'm trying to say in a humorous way that you didn't do anything wrong, really, the variety is just a dog in terms of culinary quality. It is possible that yours was maybe starting to get on the old side when harvested if "mealy", older kernels beginning to convert to starch can still contain "milk". These SU varieties tend to have a much shorter shelf life, on the stalk or in the refrigerator, than the newer SE and especially the Sh2 and synergistic varieties. I recall 'Sugar Buns' as being better than average for an early corn, but still not as good as main season. Really, of the early corns I've dabbled with, early was the good part of the equation, but none of them were very impressive in terms of taste or texture. Don't feel too bad about it, I've been there. I grew Early and Often from Burpee last year, and it did really well, large nice ears, productive, and tasted awful, like field corn. I didn't trash it, but I marked the frozen packages and reserved for use in things like enchilada casserole filling where it would basically just be filler and the flavor would be hidden by the spices. My future approach to attempting any early crop would be to use my regular varieties such as Sun and Stars from Burpee, and start them extra early in 4" pots, then use season extending techniques like black plastic mulch and row covers for added spring heat. But I didn't get that far this year with the weird early spring and everything popping fast, other garden chores took too much time. |
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| Um, your basic problem was you grew 'Early Sunglow' -- a pretty reliable early variety that's been around forever, but its culinary merits are pretty lacking. Tends to be kind of flavorless, mushy, blah. In other words, I'm trying to say in a humorous way that you didn't do anything wrong, really, the variety is just a dog in terms of culinary quality. It is possible that yours was maybe starting to get on the old side when harvested if "mealy", older kernels beginning to convert to starch can still contain "milk". These SU varieties tend to have a much shorter shelf life, on the stalk or in the refrigerator, than the newer SE and especially the Sh2 and synergistic varieties. I recall 'Sugar Buns' as being better than average for an early corn, but still not as good as main season. Really, of the early corns I've dabbled with, early was the good part of the equation, but none of them were very impressive in terms of taste or texture. Don't feel too bad about it, I've been there. I grew Early and Often from Burpee last year, and it did really well, large nice ears, productive, and tasted awful, like field corn. I didn't trash it, but I marked the frozen packages and reserved for use in things like enchilada casserole filling where it would basically just be filler and the flavor would be hidden by the spices. My future approach to attempting any early crop would be to use my regular varieties such as Sun and Stars from Burpee, and start them extra early in 4" pots, then use season extending techniques like black plastic mulch and row covers for added spring heat. But I didn't get that far this year with the weird early spring and everything popping fast, other garden chores took too much time. |
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- Posted by Scubadiver1 none (My Page) on Tue, Aug 21, 12 at 10:31
| Thanks. I guess we will freeze the Early Sunglow for cooking. My Silver King became ripe this last weekend. Nectar and ambrosia! |
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