Creamed corn: Storm devastates Taber corn crop
Posted Aug 7, 2019 9:38 pm.
Last Updated Aug 8, 2019 11:44 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
TABER (660 NEWS) — An Alberta favourite at the dinner table at this time of year will be harder to come by this year after a storm ripped through the Taber region, destroying sweet corn crops in southern Alberta on Tuesday.
The storm packing winds that topped 140 km/h and golf ball-sized hail wiped out several fields, including the Molnar’s, who farm near Barnwell.
James Molnar says in all his years of farming, he has only once seen a storm like that one.
Molnar went out and walked his crop a couple of times after the storm to see what damage it did to the plants that normally stand over 6-feet tall.
“Now it’s anywhere from maybe four inches high to 24-inches high,” says Molnar, adding it’s 100 per cent loss for him.
The cobs took a beating during the storm.
“One side is okay on the cob, the other side is just like you put it on a cement floor and rolled it and it turned into cream corn.”
Molnar says he would be lucky at this point if he could salvage a dozen cobs for dinner.
His neighbour, the Johnson’s didn’t fare much better.
“The biggest grower in Taber, that’s Johnson Farm Fresh Corn, talking to him this morning (Wednesday), it sounds like 90 to 95 per cent of his is gone too.”