Farmer Robert Reese's dogs won't eat just any sweet corn. The farmer says they'll only gnaw on the good, sweet stuff, and this year's crop has their approval.
"The sweet corn crop is surprisingly good for how little rain we've had this year," Reese said, referring to the unusually dry June that had him worried. His farm is in Clinton County, and it's seen a few good rains lately, which he says has stopped a lot of the damage.
"It tastes good, very good. It's been a long winter, so we've been looking forward to having it," Reese said.
He had some troubles at the beginning of the season, too. It was warm enough to plant early, but then his land was hit with too much rain, so he had to wait some weeks between plantings.
Reese sold his first harvest Wednesday, but says he will probably run out this week because he couldn't plant regularly at the start of the season. This weekend, though, is the beginning of the really good, sweet corn crop. Reese says if you're planning to freeze corn, he recommends waiting to buy it until at least this weekend.
Horrocks Produce Manager Andrew Baird says the store recently started getting its local sweet corn. "Just like everything else, it takes a couple of weeks for it for it to get really good," Baird said. "But we've had it now for a week or two, and it's really good. I just brought some home the other night actually."
The dry weather hasn't affected most of the store's fruits and vegetables, Baird said. "The only [crop] that's really been affected so far has been the cherries. We haven't seen any cherries yet, and they're usually here by now," he said.
But most of the Michigan produce has been right on time, even some of the fruit that can be tougher to grow. "Peaches are usually are a pretty good indicator on weather, they're pretty picky, and they're right on schedule," Baird said. Michigan peaches are scheduled to make it to Horrocks by Tuesday. "I don't think the weather, as of yet, has been affecting it too much."
Both Reese and Baird say it's too early to tell how the weather will affect some other crops, like apples and soy beans, that are harvested later in the season.
