BEEKMANTOWN — Sweet corn at last.
The delectable summer treat is showing up on farm stands a couple of weeks later than usual, due to overly wet weather in spring and early summer.
But uncooperative Mother Nature didn't bring dire consequences for Shields Vegetables/Dyer Farms on Route 22.
For Sam Dyer's method of crop cultivation includes planting corn in a staggered fashion and using varieties that require different periods of time to grow and ripen.
As one crop fades away, another is on the verge of harvesting.
SEASONAL BUSINESS
The third-generation truck farmer lost his first round of planting to birds and rain, "but the second batch looks great," he said, gesturing toward crates full of tasseled green ears in the back of a pickup truck, ready for the shelves at Shields Vegetables on Route 22 in Beekmantown.
He set out his first sweet corn on Aug. 1.
Usually, the corn is ready by the third week of July, though it has been ripe as early as July 12, said the farmer, who is also a Clinton County legislator.
And while the late start to the corn season isn't dire to Dyer, it doesn't help.
"This is a seasonal business," he said. "You don't get two weeks back in a three-month business."
HIGH-TUNNEL TOMATOES
But diversification and modernization are proving key.
There's homegrown beef at the farm stand now.
And Dyer grows tomatoes in a high-tunnel system that protects the plants from the elements.
Ironically, he has to run a generator to pump the water that nourishes the 650 plants, even in a year with lots of rain. And that adds to the cost of production.
"But if I can control the atmosphere, I can get the product," he said.
Dyer's grandfather Harry Shields would be impressed at the technology that takes some of the gamble out of truck farming.
"He started the farm 70 years ago," Dyer said with pride.
5 GENERATIONS
In 1964, according to a Press-Republican story that Dyer keeps at the farm stand, his grandfather grew his tomatoes right out in the field — an impressive 10,000 plants on 3 acres.
His sweet corn crop, planted an acre at a time two weeks apart, similar to his grandson's system, covered about 15 acres, compared to Dyer's 25 to 30 acres.
But while rain has been the challenge in 2017, in 1963, it was severe drought.
Shields lost half his corn crop that year, according to the report. And his other crops suffered severe damage.
But the business survived that dire situation, and now Dyer is in charge.
His son Ryan makes it a fourth-generation operation, and Ryan's son, Easton, who's 1, is expected to take a role before long, too.
That continuing family involvement, the elder Dyer said, "shows the road we've gone down is not that bad."
AUDIBLE SCARECROW
Up another road, just a bit, is the Giroux Family Farm, where the quiet is broken by the screeching and squawking of a bird clearly in some dire situation.
Or not.
"It's a recording," said Carolyn Giroux, laughing.
She doesn't even hear the frantic calls anymore, but apparently the blackbirds do, for at least some of them heed the danger calls and fly clear of the Girouxs' sweet corn.
"Blackbirds will really kill a crop," she said.
So will rain, Giroux said.
"We weren't able to get the entire crop in" because the ground was too wet, she explained.
WEEDS FLOURISH
The seed that sprouted, she said, grew well despite another impediment — with the cornfields saturated, they couldn't cultivate it the way they normally would.
"And weeds like rain," Giroux said.
The corn, however, is as tasty as any raised there. There just won't be as much for as long as usual.
The typical six-to-seven-week season is now only four. The price remains the same, though — $5 per dozen.
Dyer charges the same; his prices for other produce, including beans, cucumbers and squash, haven't changed in several years.
TRAGIC FIRE
The Girouxs raise maybe 4 or 5 acres of sweet corn; it has been a sideline to their dairy business of 50 years.
But dire truly describes the news she and her husband, Joe, received while enjoying the first day of the Clinton County Fair on the evening of July 18.
Their dairy barn, with many cows inside, had caught fire.
Some of the herd was rescued, but other cows didn't make it. And the barn was destroyed.
Carolyn, Joe (former county treasurer) and their son Todd, who own the spread together, haven't decided yet whether they will rebuild.
And as customers drop by for corn and express their support, that's a bit of information Carolyn perhaps wishes could be broadcast as a recording along with the "frightened bird" calls.
But not really.
"It's nice to see people are concerned," she said, deeply appreciative. "The North Country is good."
UNTIL THE HUSK FREEZES
Back at Dyer's farm, the crop farmer offered some good news for sweet-corn lovers.
There will be ripe ears ready for eating well into the autumn, he said.
"We will pick until the husk freezes through."
And without saying who might suffer dire consequences, Dyer issued a good-natured threat.
"We better have corn until Halloween."
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