Baby Corn Is a Real Vegetable That Can Be Grown
I swear these photos are not fakes. I was growing corn in my backyard and it was easy. All you have to do to grow young corn is not grow real corn.
Start by buying a pack of seeds (look for a bag with a picture of corn on the front). Plant the seeds as directed or just how you want. My four-year-old put about a dozen seeds in a small pot and then left it in the corner of the garden, where the roots grew through the bottom of the pot and took root, probably many miles underground. So you could have done it.
Real gardeners say that corn needs a lot of space and should be fertilized with plenty of nitrogen. But who are you going to listen to, real gardeners or a four-year-old?
We planted ours near Memorial Day, at the end of May. Yesterday, the first of August, I noticed the first ear of corn. By then, it was about the size of a large takito, perhaps, and had a large tuft of corn stigmas on top. (The ear grows in the middle of the stem, not at the top. Look down.)
If we were to plant corn in a mesh, the wind would eventually blow off enough pollen from the tops of the plants to fertilize every strand of corn silk on a neighboring plant. Each strand leads to one nucleus, and the fertilized nucleus becomes fat and sweet. If you do not grow corn well, you may end up with cobs that contain a mixture of plump, fertile kernels and dirt. I do not grow corn well, so I decided to cut my losses.
As soon as that first ear picks up a tuft of corn silk, pull it away from the plant. Peel off the husk and there it is: your corn. Congratulations, you have grown a six-foot plant just to harvest a four-inch ear of young corn. There is a metaphor somewhere.
The canned baby corn has been boiled and salted, so feel free to do the same. Your home grown corn will taste the same, only fresher. It is crispy, aggressively soft before salting, and slightly sweet. Enjoy.