Just a Little Taste....

Thanks to everyone who stopped by the last couple of days for the first tastes of corn.  Sadly, due to hot weather during tasseling and those raccoons (see previous post), our supply has been impacted.  We've had to pull the corn signs for a few days.  But we will be back as soon as possible.

It's been great to see our regulars and meet some new corn lovers so early in the season.

Hope you all have a great long weekend.  

See you at the corn table soon!

Corn-i-vores Officially!

We're excited to post that we do indeed have corn available today.  Stop by to see us at the table!

Supply may be limited over the next few days.

Today's corn is a bi-colour called Navajo.  We had some delicious, tender cobs for supper last night.  And nothing tastes better than the first corn of the season.

An ear from a week or so ago...now ready to eat!

Those "Waskly Waccoons"

We really know all about family bonding at the Doris'!  While the kids' friends have fun family weekends (now don't get me wrong, we do manage some fun, non-work stuff too), we sometimes have work that just has to be done.  Such is the life of a farmer....

Last week, Pete noticed on his "crop tour" that our little raccoon friends seem to have found our 2013 corn field a little earlier than usual.  That meant it was time to get into action and tackle those pesky predators (or "waskly waccoons") who love our sweet corn. And that's where Elmer Fudd comes in (you do remember Bugs Bunny don't you?

Peter may wear a funny hat, but instead of hunting, we set up an electrified predation fence, usually used by sheep farmers, around the perimeter of our sweet corn field.  We're crossing fingers that these little zaps will keep the raccoons away.

Special thanks to Claire and Maggie for their hard work!

And crossing fingers, we're hoping to have corn by the Civic Holiday weekend.

The First Update of 2013 - Corn is Around the Corner

What a summer ...and July has barely started!  At the Doris Farm, haying has been a frustrating experience to date with weather and machinery challenges.  We appear to be more that 2 weeks behind compared to last year.  Hopefully some rain-free days will come (but please, just a few) so we can get first-cut hay off our farm "to do" list.

While Peter raked some hay (hoping baling might happen tomorrow), I headed off on a little crop tour.  The good news is our corn seems to have liked the rain and the hot, humid weather to date.  The first sign we watch for is tassels on our corn.  Now I'm certainly no agronomist, but my understanding is that the tassel is the male flower of the corn plant.  It's really a group of  flowers that grow at the top of each corn stalk (I think it's almost a little feathery).  It only grows after most of the plant growth has happened and the ears of corn are starting to grow.  (For you growth and development types, the silk of the corn cob is the female flower). Southwestern Ontario friends talk about their experiences de-tasseling corn as a summer job  - removing the tassels, one by one, to allow for cross-pollination resulting in new hybrid corn varieties.

Tonight's tour showed success - our first patch of early corn looks great.  As you can see in the picture, uniform tassels!  The best news - according to Peter, that means we're a mere 3 weeks from corn season. Are you as excited as we are?

We hope to have a few surprises for you this year too.  But that's for another post!