Guys Who Grow Perfect Corn

For years I had seen the pale green antique truck with the words “Howden Farm” painted on the side in a retro-chic font.  When I saw it in LaBonne’s parking lot I’d be thrilled to know there was a fresh stash of just picked butter and sugar corn waiting to be grabbed by the dozen from the corn bin at the front of the store. 

In my imagination, the farmers were handsome bearded Brooklyn hipsters who moved up here, studied how to grow corn on the internet and made a perfect corn to go in their perfect truck to be eaten by finicky summer corn connoisseurs in the Northwest Corner. 

Boy, was I wrong. 

Howden Farm corn is perfect, yes, and the farmers are handsome of course, but the rest of the story couldn’t be further from the truth.    

You can’t grow this kind of heavenly sweet stuff by reading up about it on the internet — it takes generations of farmers and years of farming practice, knowledge and true dedication to the land to produce this kind of perfection.  

Bruce Howden, the 79 -year- old farmer behind this sweet summer deliciousness no longer sells at LaBonne’s but he sells at the Sheffield Farmers’ Market on Friday afternoons and at the Salisbury Farmers’ Market on Saturday mornings. I met this corn celebrity and his 91-year-old partner of over 40 years, David Prouty, at the family farm in Sheffield. 

Howden’s father had come to Sheffield by way of Singapore, Philadelphia, the Catskills and Great Barrington. Eventually, after trying several things, his father began to grow corn in the summer and pumpkins for the fall. As a boy the younger Howden delivered corn all the way from Salisbury to Pittsfield and remembers delivering to the old Shagroy Market on Main Street in Salisbury. After many years of doing different jobs and then running a bed and breakfast in Vermont near where David was a professor of psychology at Middlebury, Howden returned to run the family farm in 1998 after his father’s death.  

The farm has 200 acres but he rents some out and uses others for crop rotation. This year Howden grew about 20 acres of his famous butter and sugar corn.  

Since 2005 Howden Farm has used solar to produce electricity to run an irrigation system. 

Howden Farm farmstand is open all the time and full of corn. It is operated on the honor system. 303 Rannapo Road, Sheffield, MA, 413-229-8481, www.howdenfarm.com 

Corn Purée with (or without) Roasted Figs

Marsden Epworth

Corn in our parts, picked daily by local farmers, is incredible. So incredible that instead of the usual enormous variety of corn recipes for everything from corn muffins, to corn popped, I found an exquisite recipe for corn puréed with roasted figs. Yes. It can be a savory served with grouse, as in Skye Gyngell’s “Spring, the Cookbook.”)

Or it can be dessert.

Corn Purée

corn stripped from 2 cobs

1 1/8 cup of milk

1 pinch  of red chili flakes

2 Tsp. superfine sugar

2 Tbs. sweet butter,

2 Tbs. creme fraîche

Place corn, milk, chili flakes and sugar in a saucepan and top with enough water to cover the corn. Simmer until tender. Gyngell says 15 minutes. I halved the time, but that’s up to you. Purée the corn in a blender and strain. Add butter and creme fraiche to the strained corn and warm over low heat until the butter is absorbed. Make certain the purée is well seasoned with salt and pepper

Roasted Figs

8 ripe figs (they have them at Guido’s in Great Barrington and, I’m certain, elsewhere)

4 thyme sprigs 

3 Tbs. fig vinegar 

1 Tbs. olive oil

2 Tbs. sweet butter

Tear the figs in half and roast them scattered with thyme, salt and pepper, olive oil and fig vinegar. When oozy and soft remove the figs from the oven and stir in the butter.

To Serve

Pool some of the corn  purée on a small plate and add a fig or two with the juice. Sometimes, I just eat dessert for dinner.