There will be corn.
Rodger DeMille looks over a section of his Salmon Arm farm where rows of Temptation Sweet Corn, one of several varieties he grows, have sprouted from the ground.
“It’s the first of May that we planted this one,” said DeMille. “It didn’t come up for 10 days. We were getting worried about it but we had one warm day and a little bit of rain and everything just popped out of the ground.”
The recent cool, wet weather was a concern for DeMille, who’s been growing corn in Salmon Arm for about 40 years. But he’s optimistic DeMille’s sweet corn will be in local stores, including DeMille’s Farm Market, in the first week or so of August.
“We’re struggling this year, yes, but the corn will be for sale…,” said DeMille. “We’ve got 15 acres planted in that now, and we’re planting again today… and it’s coming up now and I’m predicting that we’ll have a pretty good year in a couple of months.”
Rodger and wife Kathy wanted to assure the public that DeMille’s sweet corn will be available this summer. This was after son Brad DeMille shared his concerns with the Observer regarding the weather and its impact on the DeMille’s corn- growing season.
“Normally we’d have all the corn in the ground by now…” said Brad, who runs DeMille’s Farm Market, in a May 18 Observer interview. “Let’s say we’re going to plant 100 acres of sweet corn…, we’d probably have all of it planted in the ground by now, and it would be 15 to 25 C.”
Brad clarified and confirmed in a May 26 interview that corn had been planted, in anticipation that the weather would be warming up.
“It’s been in the ground two to three weeks and certainly some of it is rotted and some of it is going to have to be replanted. It has also delayed the replanting. That’s for sure.”
With the change in the weather, though, Brad was optimistic about the DeMille corn crop.
“Hopefully it will be ready by the first couple of weeks in August.”
Rodger said the corn is normally ready in late July.
“Normally we can get it out before the last weekend in July or just before the long weekend in August,” said Rodger. “That’s when the customers are there and stuff. But the weather is the key and nobody can change the weather.”
Rodger is also optimistic his sweet corn will be on store shelves in Salmon Arm and Sicamous by early August.
“Askew’s has been a really, really good customer…,” reflected Rodger. “Askew’s has been really good and Fruit World in Sicamous is one of my best customers.”
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