'Our Crops Are Saved!' Says Farmer at Maplewood Market

For those who must have their Jersey sweet corn for every summer barbeque, fear not! The crop has been saved, at least for now.

As reported in West Orange Patch and the Star-Ledger last Friday, July 9, Jersey farmers are suffering through a drought. Thus far, expensive and time-consuming irrigation from farm wells has kept crops like lettuce and strawberries coming in, but corn can be a different matter altogether.

Farmer Dale Davis of Stony Hill in Chester explained to Patch that it takes only four to five acres of planting to bring in Stony Hill's crop of tomatoes and three acres for strawberries, but the sweet corn is planted each week from April through July over 35 acres. Irrigating the tomatoes and strawberries is a lot easier than irrigating the corn.

"We are very happy farmers right now," Davis told Patch. "'cause we got two inches of rain" over the course of Friday and Saturday.

Now, added Davis, it just needs to keep raining a couple of inches every week. A farmer's dream, he said, would be to have sun all day each day and an inch or an inch-and-a-half of rain each night.

Davis promised that his crop of sweet corn would start making an appearance at the Maplewood Farmers Market next week. Right now, he's selling South Jersey sweet corn at five ears for $3 (or 65 cents an ear).