PITTSBURGH—One of the best parts of summer is the long and short car trips that get you out of town and into nature.
Even better: The family-run farm stands featuring flowers, eggs, jams, and seasonal fruit and veggies—sometimes sold from the back of a pickup truck or a small shelter at the end of a dirt driveway leading back to the farm.
Chief among August offerings is sweet corn, which has been grown for more than 200 years and continues to be universally loved as a summer staple.
Pennsylvania farmers grow more than 100 million bushels of corn each year. Most of it is fed to livestock (animal agriculture, especially dairy, is a huge industry in the state) or used for ethanol, but the green, leafy stalks bearing ears destined for dinner tables are anything but ho-hum.
Harvested early, while the kernels are still young in the “milk stage,” sweet corn is exactly as billed—sweet, with tender, juicy kernels that burst open on the tongue when you bite into a buttery cob that’s been steamed, boiled, grilled, or roasted in the oven.
The start of the 2026 corn season was slightly delayed because spring weather was so squirrelly (remember that late April freeze that ruined this year’s strawberry and peach crops?). But this is shaping up to be a good year for corn in western Pennsylvania, with more than 1 million acres planted.
The best way to eat sweet corn is probably right off the cob, salted and heavily buttered, but the veggie lends itself to a wide range of summer dishes. Pan-roasted, it can easily star in a pasta salad or the Mexican dish known as elote; it also can be simmered in a soup or chowder, team up with tomatoes in a cobbler, be scraped into hot cream for a luscious pudding, or be folded into risotto.
More a fan of dessert? Corn can even be made into a sweet, no-churn ice cream.
All told, the possibilities are almost endless for the creative cook—a happy fact that makes buying a dozen ears when you’re only planning on eating half that much that day a smart move.
Here, sweet corn purchased at a roadside farmers market is the star ingredient in a creamy, super-seasonal pasta dish.
After the kernels are grated down to the cob using the large holes of a box grater set in a deep bowl, the cobs are added to a pot of boiling water to make a flavorful “corn stock” full of sugars and starches. When pasta is added to the hot corn water after the cobs are removed, the noodles not only absorb the corn’s sweet, earthy flavor, but the starchy water also helps bind the sauce into something wonderfully silky.
Because zucchini is typically on display alongside corn at a farm stand and almost melts into a creamy sauce when sautéed in butter, I added small cubes of it to the pan along with shallots and a diced (homegrown) red chile pepper. A handful of halved cherry tomatoes adds a punch of color and candy-like sweetness to the finished dish.
When buying corn, look for ears with fresh, tightly wrapped green leaves and golden or light brown silks at the top that feel slightly sticky. That’s a sign that the corn was ripe when it was picked. An ear should feel plump and firm when lightly squeezed; avoid ones with holes in the leaves (possible worms!).
Fresh corn very quickly looses its sweet flavor after being picked—it’s best within two days of purchasing—so if you’re not using it right away, leave the husks on and store in your fridge’s crisper drawer as soon as possible.
