The Mystery Corn

When I returned from work on Friday afternoon, I found a note from my mother, a few bunches of grapes, and three dozen ears of corn.

I was expecting the grapes. My mother said she was harvesting that day.

The corn perplexed me.

My parents don't grow corn. Why would she leave three dozen ears for my husband and me?

On Saturday morning, I saved a few ears for eating and froze the rest.

Thoughts of eating a taste of summer during the winter months made me smile.

That afternoon, I thanked my mother for the corn.

"It's not from me," she says. "It was there when I dropped off the grapes. It looked so good, I thought about taking a few ears."

The corn mystery was solved when the man who farms for us stopped by to deliver corn.

"I never knew you grew sweet corn," I commented to the bachelor farmer.

He says his family has usually planted a plot near the farmhouse.

"I planted it on the Fourth of July," he said. In our area, the Fourth of July is the date most sweet corn farmers want to have ears for sale. "I told my brother it would be Labor Day corn."

He watered it weekly through the dry summer. When ears formed, he played the radio to keep raccoons away from the ears.

In the past week or so, he's harvested about 100 dozen ears.

He gives it to friends and family, and only hopes for a thank you and smile in return.