One of the favorites of summer had some people lining-up at a roadside stand in Tilton Monday. They were buying Lingley Brothers Sweet Corn. Toby Brown, who owns the business, says he wondered earlier this year how the COVID-19 pandemic might impact this year’s demand. But he adds sales have surprised him…
{‘’This year has been exceptionally good sales because we’ve noticed – a – it seems like more people are doing things at home, so there’s more cookouts and things like that going on at home. It doesn’t divide people’s attention for all the other outings that normally happen,’’ said Brown, ‘’but also a stronger demand – I think – in wanting to put food in the freezer.}’’
So how did the corn turn out this year?
{‘’It’s been phenomenal. The early stuff was a little slow to come up. We had some cold area there in April and May,’’ said Brown. ‘’But once we got beyond that – everything has just been almost as good as I’ve ever seen it.’’}
Brown noted normally he keeps track of planting season by events going on around the area – but that is not the case this year….
{‘’It’s very odd. In our family the Vermilion County Fair, the Georgetown Fair, the State Fair – those kinds of things that you look forward to – those have disappeared on us. And it’s hard to tell what time of the summer you’re in. Especially when sweet corn didn’t even start until almost the end of July,’’ said Brown. ‘’The whole year has been weird – trying to figure out just exactly where you’re at in it,’’ he added during an interview with VermilionCountyFirst.com News.
Brown added he expects there will be fresh sweet corn available at Lingley’s roadside stands through late September.
