Here is a picture of me, a crazy tourist in Ohio, standing in front of a huge field of corn… Hey, I’m from Texas, we’ve been in drought for years.

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Anyways, on the way back to the family’s house I got to thinking…. We get some pretty big ears of corn from fields like this, that is WHY the fields are so large….

So… Would the corn fields that baby corn come from be smaller?

And is it a specific variety of corn or just the tops of regular corn cut off when it is still young?

I looked it up for all of you out there wondering the same as me.

Apparently, there are two methods of producing baby corn or candle corn; the first being a seed variety that produces only baby corn, who knew? Or the second method, regular sweet corn is grown and the second ear from the top is harvested for baby corn, but it has to be hand-picked as soon as the corn silks emerge, because it matures so quick.

I’m guessing we generally go with the seed option because I can’t imagine watching corn grow so you can harvest the babies and leave the others to grow completely. Something about that just seems wrong, but who am I to question agriculture? I can’t even grow a tomato plant…. Apparently you need to water it. Go figure. Baby-Corn_01