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!
YES! In fact I am as excited as you about the prospect of fresh corn in about 3 weeks!
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