This time of year, when the cover comes off the grill and everyone is excited to get together for their summer barbeques, there is one staple that cannot be overlooked: CORN, and only the sweetest will do!

At the Monadnock Food Co-op, we wait patiently for the local crop of organic corn from Harlow Farm in Westminster, VT, to arrive, but this doesn’t happen until July. Last year’s corn harvest from Harlow’s spanned from July 20th until about September 12th. So, in the early summer months, we have to find a fill-in supply and to do so with organic product has proven to be a challenge. Much of the organic corn available to us wholesale is grown in Mexico, and even when it’s not, the quality is consistently sub-par to what we and you, our customers, demand.

Ultimately, we’ve had to go with conventional, but it comes with a good story. We source our corn from Pioneer Growers, which is a cooperative of corn farmers mostly out of Florida and Georgia. Pioneer Growers began in 1950 as a small group of farmers that started a marketing cooperative to market their fresh vegetables. Now they’re one of the largest fresh sweet corn shippers in the United States, growing over 13,000 acres annually. The corn is a super-sweet, bi-color variety grown without the use of any GMOs.

We’ll be sure to shout it out when our local corn is finally available, but until then, please enjoy our responsibly-sourced, non-GMO offerings!