The summer 'must do' list: eat fresh corn

The family and I are continuing to check things off our summer 'must do' list. And one thing all six of us love is fresh corn - on the cob. July is the best month for fresh corn in Saitama Prefecture and we have been indulging quite a bit these past few weeks! I like to get corn straight from a farm when possible and this year I thankfully found a farm near home that sells a selection of freshly picked corn. Moreover, their white corn is probably the most delicious we've ever tasted. According to the farmer you can even eat it raw. 

But even better than fresh corn bought straight from the farm, is fresh corn you picked yourself! Earlier in summer I picked corn at the excellent Vegetable Friends' Farm in Fukaya. I hadn't intended to, but when I saw the "corn fair" signs up at the farm, I just had to! The system at Vegetable Friends' Farm is excellent: you pick by vegetable rather than time frame like most other farms. They have a really wide range of vegetables available. They may not have a huge amount of each, so sometimes you might only be allowed pick one or two, but in July they have loads of corn ripe for the picking. 

In some areas corn is ripe for the picking from July to September. In my area of Saitama it seems to be mainly a July vegetable. There are some farms in Japan that create mazes in their cornfields. Until the pandemic, Kato Farm in Hidaka (Saitama) was one such place, but they didn't have it between 2020 and 2022. I don't know if it ever came back, but we haven't been to a cornfield maze since the pandemic began. Its on the list of 'must do's for the summer of 2024!