Local Garlic, Raspberries, Carrots, Beans, Onions, Potatoes, AND CORN!!!

What a great time of year, the raspberries, carrots, beans, potatoes and onions are all in full season.  The corn season is about to begin this weekend, And the local garlic is here.  Really, what could be better,

The local garlic season has just started!
I received my first shipment of locally grown garlic today. Juicy, aromatic, and much more pungent than its imported counterparts. Local garlic roasts into a sweet creamy paste that you can mash into potatoes or spread on bread. Really, if at this time of year you aren't consuming at least a clove a day....well I'll just feel sorry for you.

The garlic is still to high in humidity to store for winter use, but if you keep your garlic in a cool dry dark place, it will dry down, and you'll be able to keep it all winter long and never have to buy imported garlic!


Erin's Yearly Corn info extravaganza!!!

Choosing local Corn
Forget everything that your mother taught you about choosing corn. Unless you have been in the corn farming business within the last 5 years, seriously, please do. Corn varieties and growing techniques have changed so much in the last 5 years that the old rules no longer apply.
My corn is hand picked each evening, put into a bin, topped with a hundred pounds of ice, and rolled into a blast cooler to be cooled to a temperature of 1 degree. If the corn that you purchase anywhere has a strong sweet corn scent....it means that the corn has heated, and the smell that you are smelling are all of the corn's sugars converting into starches. Cooling the corn nixes the smell, but preserves the sugars.
You want your cob of corn to be heavy for its size, the husks at this early stage should be green, with a barely visible fuzz on them (like a peach). With the dry hot weather that we have been having, I wouldn't be surprised if the husks may look dry, but this would in no way effect flavour. Variety of corn determines kernel size, kernel colour and sheen, cob size, and tip fill (if the kernels go all the way to the top or not). It is no longer true that smaller kernels mean a 'younger' cob of corn. It just means that it is a variety bred to have small kernels Please please refrain from pulling back corn husks. We ask for you to trust us. I know my growers, I know what varieties they grow, their harvesting, storage, and transportation techniques. I know that the Manitoba corn that you buy from me will be good. If you insist on pulling back the husks, please pull them down a full 4 inches, just taking a peek at the top will not give you a good idea of how the cob looks. Remember, tip fill is variety dependant, not age dependant.

Storing
Refrigerate refrigerate refrigerate! From the time that it is picked, if corn is not refrigerated, it will lose 50% of its sugars in one day! Imagine what it does sitting in the back of a truck in the sun all day.... If it is refrigerated to the ideal temperature of 35 degrees F. it only loses 5% of its sugars in one day. Most people only notice a change in taste after a 20 to 25% loss in sugars, so you have 4-5 days to use your corn after you buy it! Corn that is picked, and refrigerated, should last 5 days without ANY taste difference. I receive shipments of local corn on a daily or bi-daily basis meaning that my customers should have 3-4 days to keep their corn in the fridge before a taste change will occur. If you are heading out to the cottage, bring a cooler for the corn, or let it travel in the air conditioned front with you. If you do not refrigerate your corn, a sugar decrease and taste change can occur within 12 hours.

Cooking
Most people over cook their corn. Many people's mothers or grandmothers used to cook corn for 10-15 minutes. This kind of treatment would turn modern SS or SE (see variety info below) corn into tasteless mush! Today's local corn is so sweet and so tender that you really don't need to cook it at all, just heat up the kernels to eating temperature. Think of how small the kernels are, they are what you are cooking, not the centre of the cob. It takes hardly any time at all to cook those itty bitty sweet kernels. If you over-cook your corn, you may want to keep an eye out of your kitchen window for the Crampton's market corn police....

Boiling
Place husked corn into an pot of already boiling water. Time for 2-3 minutes as soon as you drop the corn in the pot. Serve immediately. I like to serve boiled corn with some lime butter spread over it.

Barbequing
Soak cob of unhusked corn in cold water for 10 minutes. Remove corn silks (stringy bits at top) so that they don't catch fire. Place on hot bbq. Time for 2 minutes per turn, turning 4-6 times. Remove corn from BBQ, and husk with oven mitts, point away from your face to prevent steam burns(it'll be HOT), serve immediately.

Microwave
As everyone's microwave cooks differently you will have to experiment with times.
Husk corn, wrap in paper towel, cook on high for 2-3 minutes.
Serve immediately.

Freezing Corn
Blanch corn (plunge in boiling water), for 1 minute. Let corn cool and dry on tea towels (some people like to plunge the corn in a cold water bath after the blanching, I find that this makes the corn a bit watery, but to each their own), cut kernels off of cob. Place in freezer bags in amounts suitable to your family's needs, freeze for up to 1 year. If you have the freezer space, you can feel free to pop the whole cob of corn into a freezer bag to have corn on the cob throughout the winter.


The inside scoop.....for all of you info junkies out there (also called Erin's yearly corn rant)

Varieties
There are hundreds and hundreds of varieties of corn that farmers grow for human consumption. They are classified in the seed catalogues as SS (super sweet), or SE (sugar enhanced). or S (synergistic). In just the past year new categories may have been developed that I don't even know about yet. Some corn varieties need to be isolated from other varieties of corn so that they don't cross pollinate. It's very technical business. When breeders are cross breeding and creating new varieties of corn, they make each new variety of corn into both yellow (all yellow corn), and bi-colour (corn with 2 colours, yellow and white). Some customer bases prefer the look of yellow corn, some bi-colour, so the scientists make certain that each grower has the choice to grow each variety in either bi- colour or yellow. So even though some customers insist that they prefer one to the other, current varieties mean that you could be eating the exact same variety of corn, with the only difference being colour.

So what about "Peaches and Cream"?
Well, 'Peaches and Cream' was the first variety of corn ever created that was of 2 colours. It is a bantam cob (very small, about 4 inches), and has a very low sugar content by today's standards. Some retailers have gotten into the unfortunate habit of calling all of their bi-colour corn 'peaches and cream' even though that variety has not been grown for 30 years or so. So if you like the look of 2 colour corn, look for my "bi-colour" signs. Many people have asked me why I don't conform and call it "peaches and cream" like everyone else does. I refuse to assume that my intelligent customers want to be fooled. When the sign above my cherries says B.C. it's because they came from British Colombia, when my sign says Local Bi-colour corn, it means that it is 2 colour corn from Manitoba. If any farmer ever chooses to grow the "Peaches and Cream" variety again, then I will change my sign. (I'm stubborn, I know)

So throughout the season you will see many varieties will pass by, varieties with names like Bodacious, Argent, King Arthur, Redemption, Sir Lancelot, or boring names like SE2150. I like to write the variety name, characteristics, and cooking time above the corn...that way you know EXACTLY what you are getting. My farmers stagger their corn plantings by about 7 days. That means that each week, the variety of corn may change. Early in the season we will be getting corn varieties that can build up sugars quickly, later on in the season, we will be getting verities which have had time to build up a bigger cob size before building up the sugars in the kernels.


THE HAND PICKED DIFFERENCE
All of the corn that I get in at the Market is hand picked. Larger farms, because of their scale, must machine pick their corn. The machine scrapes its way up the whole stalk of corn, scooping up the cob along the way. In order to make sure that the corn is not destroyed by this process, larger growers must grow varieties of corn that have smaller, harder cobs. The machine cuts the cob from the stalk, leaving a knife mark that oxidizes and turns the end brown. If the cobs are not positioned properly, one side of the cob may be scraped, causing broken kernels. Because of these drawbacks, Crampton's Market only carries hand picked corn. Smaller growers hand pick their corn, Hand picking is labour intensive, especially if the fields are muddy, or if it is hot outside (corn fields block any breezes from cooling off the workers). One stalk of corn only produces one cob, so the pickers must visit 12 stalks to get the dozen corn that you buy. Hand picked cobs are usually larger as there are no mechanical restrictions as to size of cob, and more tender varieties can be grown as there is not the squish factor of machine harvesting. Because the cobs are ripped off as opposed to cut, they have more greenery attached to them which helps it keep for longer in your refrigerator. Though it makes for huge labour costs, there is no comparison in taste, size, texture and overall quality to machine picked corn.


Interesting fact about corn
The silks at the top of the cob are actually flowers. Each silk leads to the individual kernel of corn that it pollinates. If you find a cob of corn that has spaces between kernels, it means that the silk was not pollinated.