For some vegetables, we have favorite varieties and don't experiment at all, but for others, I'm still looking for the type that best suits our farm and palates.  This year, I grew three kinds of sweet corn, and thought I'd share my results.

Legend was not so legendary as an ultra-early corn, but I have another planting (pictured here) ripening up in a week or so that might change our minds.  Bodacious (which we've tried before) was good, but not the be-all-and-end-all corn that our hardware store proprietor's son said it would be.  (I suspect the son liked the name more than the corn.)

What lived up to the hype?  Mirai 160Y Yellow.  As their website explains: "Supersweet types (SH2) have high sugar for shipping but are tough and do not have good corn flavor.  Sugar Extenders types (SE) are very tender and have good flavor but are not sweet and sugary.  Types (SU) have old-time sweet corn flavor but are not tender or sweet.  Combining these 3 types of sweet corn give Mirai customers their truly unique, one-of-a-kind 'Mirai Experience' of the best taste, flavor and texture available in sweet corn today."  In our own garden and kitchen, a bit of Mirai corn was sweet enough to turn soup made from blighted tomatoes into a delicious feast.

Of course, like all the sweet corns we favor, Mirai is a hybrid, so we can't save the seeds.  And the variety is currently very highly priced --- I think I spent $4 on 100 seeds.  Still, as a special summer treat, the corn was worth it.

Want more in-depth information? Browse through our books.

Or explore more posts by date or by subject.

About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.

Powered by Branchable Wiki Hosting.