Sweetcorn harvest in good time for Christmas

HAND-PICKED: LeaderBrand Produce is about to start its annual sweetcorn harvest. All cobs are hand-picked. A company spokeswoman said they expect to have the corn in supermarkets from Monday. Picture supplied

LeaderBrand is set to start harvesting its first corn cobs a week later than anticipated due to the ongoing impacts of the La Nina weather pattern.

Spring has featured consistent rainfall and lower temperatures than normal, affecting the crops across the company's farm.

“Gisborne's climate is normally abundant with sunshine and warmer temperatures making it the perfect location to grow the tastiest sweetcorn,” LeaderBrand chief executive Richard Burke said.

“We pride ourselves on our sweetcorn grown right here in Gizzy. The sun and soil are perfectly aligned to grow what we believe is the best corn available.

“This spring has brought us some challenges. However, the last couple of weeks have seen the weather settle down a bit and we've had enough hours of sunshine just in time for harvesting our first crop of corn later this week.

“The more settled weather will also help our later harvests of corn, set to be picked throughout January.”

Mr Burke said they spent hours testing varieties of corn from all over the world, sometimes trialling more than 200 different types on the farm.

“All to ensure that we're growing the perfect match to our conditions. It's all about the taste, and the sweeter and creamier the better.”

Once the sweetcorn has reached maturity, it's time to harvest.

“We don't use machines here. Every cob is hand-picked to make sure that we've delivering the highest quality corn to your supermarket. Every crate is checked by our team before it leaves the field,” he said.

Last year, the supermarkets said that a whopping 1,149,002 corn cobs were sold in the 14 days before Christmas. That's 57 ears of sweetcorn every second.

The outlets said that corn was in the top five items with the biggest lift in sales in the fortnight prior to Christmas.

“Sweetcorn is such an important part of a Kiwi summer, and we're not surprised that New Zealanders are wanting to add corn to their Christmas menu, especially if this year your meal is focused around a barbecue.

“Whether you cook it on the grill with or without the husk, sweetcorn slightly charred with lashings of butter is delicious and easy.

“A great tip for checking the freshness of the corn is to look for a cob that has a tight green husk and is rounder and fatter at the ends. We don't recommend pulling back the husk in-store as that dries out the cob quicker.”

LeaderBrand sweetcorn will be in your local supermarket from Monday.