Red Sweet Corn Sold Out Fast

Red Sweet Corn Sold Out Fast FARM HOME Food 22-3-2 If you're looking to add some excitement to your garden, you don't have to look any farther than the amazing new red sweet corn introduced this year by W. Atlee Burpee & Co., Warminster, Penn. Ruby Queen is a 75-day hybrid sweet corn with deep red kernels and it's going over big. "We had a limited supply for 1998 so we featured it in this year's catalog. But by mid winter it was already sold out," says company representative Peggy DeLaurentis. The ears are 8 in. long and colored a deep red that took five years for plant geneticists to develop. They started with pink-kerneled corn and went through 10 generations to achieve Ruby Queen's deep red. Is the world ready for red sweet corn? "Absolutely," says company president George Ball Jr., who notes that 100 years ago yellow colored sweet corn was revolutionary. Before that it had always been white. Yellow corn was considered suitable only for livestock, not humans. Then Burpee introduced Golden Bantam in 1902, the first yellow sweet corn. Burpee says a larger supply of Ruby Queen will be available for the 1999 growing season. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, W. Atlee Burpee & Co., 300 Park Ave., Warminster, Penn. 18974 (ph 215 674-4900; fax 3452).

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