In Season Now: Sweet Corn

By Lenn Thompson

Considering how much I love food, wine, and beer, I have surprisingly few true food obsessions. Pork shoulder and local heirlooms tomatoes are two of them (more on tomatoes in a future column) but one of the others is Long Island sweet corn.

A simple and delicious summer meal with sweet corn, grilled steak, and tomatoes.

And now that we're well into August, you'll find sweet corn at just about every farm stand across the East End, and that's good because you want to get the freshest corn that you can. Why? Well, the second an ear of corn is picked its deliciously sweet sugar begins to turn into starch, which is obviously much less tasty. When I buy sweet corn, I always ask the farmer when it was picked. If the answer isn't "this morning" or "a couple hours ago" I don't buy it.

Luckily, the North Fork's corn Mecca - Harbes Farm - is a reasonably short drive from my house in Sound Beach. Reasonably short for someone as obsessed as I am - about 35 minutes. They only sell what they pick in the morning. Once it's gone, it's gone. Check your local stand and ask them for the freshest stuff. Your mouth will thank you.

So what are the best ways to eat local corn? If it's super fresh, I eat it raw right off the cob. Beyond that, we've been grill-roasting it and making a killer corn salad. To make it, you blanch shucked corn in salted water for three minutes, cut the kernels off the cobs into a bowl, add as much onion, tomato and basil as you want, salt and pepper and then a little olive oil and lemon juice. Nothing better and nothing screams "SUMMER" like this salad.

Other great places to find delicious local corn include the EECO Farm (Long Lane in East Hampton), the Sag Harbor Farmer's Market (Saturday's at near Marine Park on Bay Street), Pike Farm Stand (Sagg Main Street in Sagaponack), and the Milk Pail Country Store (Montauk Highway in Bridgehampton).

Lenn Thompson lives in Sound Beach with his wife Nena and infant son, Jackson. He is the former editor of the Long Island Wine Gazette and writes about local wines for several media outlets including AppellationAmerica.com , Edible East End, and his blog LENNDEVOURS.com. He loves hearing from readers and fellow local wine enthusiasts. You can email him at lenndevours@gmail.com.