SOLON — One of Iowa’s many traditions is sweet corn in the summer. Much closer to home, Rebel’s sweet corn has been a Solon tradition for a long time. This year however, had the potential to be a summer without the tasty treat as Dean Rebel announced he wouldn’t be planting or selling any sweet corn.
Kyle Stahle though, had a calling to make an attempt to fill the sweet corn void.
Literally.
“Dean gave me a call early spring, maybe late winter, and said, ‘I don’t think I’m gonna grow sweet corn this year.’ I’ve told him (in the past) I’m not gonna grow any sweet corn, Dean, because I can’t beat your corn, and I’ve enjoyed his corn for the last 10-15 years.” But, talking with him, Kyle said, “I would love to have the opportunity, and I’m gonna do the best I can to do as well as you have done the last ten years, and I just dropped it on the family and told them, ‘Hey, we’re gonna grow sweet corn (for the first time ever) this year.”
With a laugh he said the idea didn’t go over so well at first, “But now all of a sudden, everybody’s happy now because it’s going well and we’ve had a great growing season.”
Thanks to a fortuitous weather pattern, the Stahle’s first foray into sweet corn has gone better than he’d expected.
“To be honest, I was really, really, really worried about being able to grow it as well as Dean…because he’s always had the best. I think we got blessed with the growing season that we were able to be pretty close, but I won’t say it’s ‘better.’ He’s always been a lot more disciplined about his nurturing and spraying, and control of little things that we’re still learning. We hope to get better at it, but Dean being so forthright with what he’s done was immense, that was the difference, and we’re pretty proud of the product. It’s good. It’s good sweet corn.”
Another sweet corn producer, Bruce Wieneke, from Ely, recently announced he was going to stop selling this year due to a lack of quality, which he attributed to a dry spell that stunted the growth of the ears. Meanwhile a cold spring has pushed sweet corn season back by a couple weeks in other parts of the state. For Kyle though, who’s farm is north of Solon, the growing conditions have been just about perfect, so far.
“It just goes to show how much variability there is in just a very close area. You can go four-to-five miles north or four-to-five miles south and it’s completely different. Some people are begging for rain, and some are begging for it to stop. We’re almost to the point now where we’d appreciate not having anymore rain (after a recent rainy spell including a couple major rain events). It’s been said many times, if you don’t like the weather, just wait until tomorrow. It’ll change.”
The weather pattern this season has put Stahle into the sweet spot for sweet corn.
“We’ve really been blessed with a good crop. We don’t have any irrigation so we’re at the whim of Mother Nature 100%. We were blessed in multiple ways, really, because being in farming you know what needs to happen. And what we needed to have happen was we planted it, then we got a nice rain, it all came up nice, and then it got dry.” The dry spell helped, he explained, as it prompted the young corn plants to drive their roots down even deeper into the soil. There’s a fine line however, and the dry spell started to go from help to hinderance as it began to stunt the growth. “And then all of a sudden it began to rain again and it produced nice ears during pollination, it wasn’t too hot, so all of the little critical things that you have to have happen in a growing season, we were blessed to have.”
He added he’s been farming for 30 years, and “That only happens once every 30 years!”
Farming is by nature an annual roll of the dice, a crap shoot. “You’re taking so much risk, every year. You’re just putting something in the ground, and you can control some things. You can control when you plant it, you can control how deep you plant it, you can kinda control when you plant it…you’ve got a window…and you always have to be within the window, but the variabilities are endless. But in the end, it’s up to Mother Nature, and the markets (supply vs. demand to determine the price). It’s not like any other business. Any other business, they know what they’re putting in, and what they can get out. We know what we’re putting in, but we have no idea what we’re getting out. So yeah, it’s somewhat crazy.” When you factor in a year where all input costs (fuel, seed, fertilizer) are significantly higher, “You’re pushing a lot of chips into the pot,” he said. “It’s similar to poker in that you’re pushing chips into the pile every year, and you don’t know what you’re going to get back. And this year, there’s a hell-of-a-lot more chips that went in.”
While the sweet corn has been a successful enterprise, it’s yielded more than just a boost to the bottom line as it has become a project for the whole family, and several friends as well.
“My youngest son is going to be a senior, and his buddies, and some neighbor kids, and my brother’s kids, and my sister’s kids…they’ve all pitched in, so it’s been a lot of family and close friends. It’s really been a great thing because my whole intention of even doing the sweet corn was not just to have good corn, but to have something for the kids to do. They get up in the morning and go pick corn. And do you know what? They all like it! They’re all happy about doing it. At first they weren’t so excited, but now they love it! So, it’s been good, it’s been a really good thing. We’ve reaped the benefits of just the life lessons already. And that’s really what it’s about”
Selling began in mid-to-late July. “It’s been fun, the kids enjoy doing it and I don’t think anybody’s complained about anything…it’s been fun.” How long will they keep selling this Iowa gold? “As long as it keeps kicking out a pretty good load a day.” As of Friday, August 5 Kyle figured he had another three or four days probably followed by a brief lull. The hot spell last week had the potential to finish some more corn for another round. At the same time though, the start of football season, and two-a-day practices will cut into his manpower. “I don’t want them picking corn for an hour or so in the morning, but…they would. They wouldn’t even hesitate.”
Looking back on his first season of sweet corn Kyle smiled and said, “I’m not gonna say it’s ‘Dean Rebel corn,’ but it’s close. It’s in the ballpark.”
Kyle Stahle gives a customer a thumbs up as Audrey puts away the money after selling a dozen ears of sweet corn Friday, August 5 in front of the Solon Dairy Queen.