Alberta corn thriving despite warm temperatures

TABER — If you saw a Taber corn stand the last few days you aren’t imagining things.

The corn from southern Alberta went on sale on Wednesday, and unlike a lot of crops across the prairies this year, it has done exceptionally well.

James Johnson from Johnson Fresh Farms says the crop got off to a slow start.

“We actually thought that we would be lucky to hit the first week in August. We thought we would be going until August 7 to 10 at one point in the season. Then the heat showed up and never turned off and now we are rolling.”

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The corn will be available in communities stretching all the way from Taber to Fort McMurray from now until mid-to-late September.

However, if the warm weather continues the crop will continue to accelerate meaning stands may be forced to close a little early.

Johnson says the peaches and cream corn on the stands right now taste good, but if you really want the best stuff to hold off for just a little bit.

“It’s not like our gourmet or main season corn yet if people are looking for stuff to freeze and can and buy tons of stack this probably isn’t the corn for that.  It grows really fast and it gets us kinda going. It’s tastes great.”