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Olathe Sweet Corn Ready To Eat

by KREX News Room
by Courtney Griffin

Story Created: Jul 15, 2012 at 8:00 PM MDT

Story Updated: Jul 16, 2012 at 7:31 AM MDT

OLATHE, Colo.- The taste of Olathe sweet corn is around early this year, and harvesters are smiling from ear to ear.

"If it ain't got the double sweet it ain't mine," said John Harold, owner of "Olathe Sweet" Sweet Corn.

This summer marks John Harold's 27th year of harvesting corn. He manages 40 people and three crews daily, while overlooking each crew as they pick around 350,000 ears per day.

After picking the ears of corn comes the inspection, icing and shipping. Harold says a lot of the tasty, juicy sweetness comes straight from Colorado. "Climatic conditions are important. After we pick the corn we cool it within one hour, which stops the sugar to starch process. We take credit for it, but it's really the natural area which we live in that allows us to do what we do," said Harold.

Harold says even though this winter was dry, his crops are better than ever. "The crop, as you can see, is great, the flavor's wonderful, and the ears are bigger," said Harold.

Harold said without the H-2A work visa program and his hard workers, he wouldn't be able to harvest enough corn to pass around. "I can't seem to get the local labor to work the way these people work, and so without the H-2A program, we really don't have a sweet corn program," said Harold.

Each person picks 18 rows at a time, producing 7,000 boxes a day.

Harold says they ship their corn from Alaska to Virginia, and everywhere in between.

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