We used to have this dream of setting up a small camp stove with boiling water next to a corn stalk and bending down an ear, still attached to the stalk and stalk to the ground, into the water to cook it. When it was done (doesn’t need much time at all, really, just a minute or two), we’d eat it, still tethered to the earth.
You see, there’s something special about particularly fresh corn, corn so juicy and tight that it squirts like a lemon when you bite into it. Ideally, corn should be eaten within hours of picking, but a day will still do fine. By the time it’s arrived in grocery stores, though, it’s just a different vegetable. Good, but not the same thing.
On that note, today is Wednesday, which means Wallingford Farmer’s Market day. Here’s the What’s Fresh report from the market folks:
Was it Garrison Keillor who once said sweet corn is better than sex? Regardless, it is sweet corn season, and you will find it on the tables of Alvarez, Ayala and Magana, and on many more farms’ tables over the coming weeks. …Tiny’s has pluots, and Collins has donut peaches. Ayala has pickling cukes… and Alm Hill has pickling dill… Sweet peppers are also now in season. Look for them from Billy’s…Ayala and Alvarez. … Olsen has spud nuts and baby new potatoes, and Billy’s has artichokes… Wilson Fish has fresh coho salmon.
This week’s cooking demonstration (4 pm) will be by Dennis Ruiz of Pequana Havana, the Cuban restaurant living inside SeaMonster Lounge. It probably won’t involve dragging a live corn ear down into a camp stove pot, but it should be good, nonetheless.
The Wallingford Farmer’s Market takes place in Wallingford Center from 3 pm – 7 pm every Wednesday.