Corn: The Business Driver

As soon as the soil at his plot in East Hampton is regularly above 50 degrees, Alex Balsam of Balsam Farms begins his first sweet corn planting. Typically starting this process in early April, he will complete 25 consecutive plantings by the end of the season, with the last patch being seeded in early August.

Although the plant is fairly disease-resistant compared to other East End staples like potatoes, sweet corn is finicky in one regard: It has a small window available for harvest. This requires the successive seedings, in order to fulfill demand all throughout the season.

Early in the spring, the subsequent plantings appear like rising stairs of lush green, the height difference of each week still noticeable. But by late summer, it is difficult to differentiate among them, the only obvious difference being the season’s final planting, completed a few weeks ago, which is barely 4 inches high—short sprouts next to a field of sorghum cover crop.

By the end of these 25 plantings, Mr. Balsam estimates, he harvests roughly 500,000 ears a year.

Which begs the question, what is all the fuss for sweet corn?

“Corn is something people make a special trip for,” said Mr. Balsam, who is 36. After the first batch appears in early July, “the whole business changes,” he said.

As he sees it, there are two kinds of crops—crops that people don’t mind buying at grocery stores and sexy crops" that will bring customers to a farm stand. By his estimation, everything green—including the ever-popular kale—fall into the every-other-crop list, while produce like asparagus, strawberries and sweet corn are sexy crops.

“There is no doubt that corn brings people in,” Mr. Balsam said.

Although he does rotate his corn fields, he says that it is not a necessity; compared to other crops like potatoes, sweet corn does not require as much rotation.

Despite its hearty nature, it is the only crop for which the farm does not use organic growing methods, which is typical of farms on the East End. Mr. Balsam estimates that using organic fertilizer would at least quadruple his costs, to say nothing of the lower yield and lower marketability, since organic produce tends to not look as “pretty” as produce grown with chemicals.

“There is a balance of what I call traditional corn taste and the sweetness of newer varieties,” Mr. Balsam explained.

Personally, he likes a firm texture and finds the pop of the bite to be very important. He recently held a blind taste test with 20 of his employees to determine which varieties would be best for next year. When asked which he cultivates now, Mr. Balsam remained quiet, citing trade secrets.

Originally from Amagansett, he decided to start his farm in 2003, just as he was beginning to study law at the University of Buffalo. A few years later his now-business partner and best friend from college, Ian Calder-Piedmonte, joined him in the endeavor. The pair had met their first day of freshman year at Cornell University.

“The thing that helped with the farm was being 22,” Mr. Balsam admitted. For their first 10 years of operation, any profits they garnered from a season they would reinvest in the farm. Although it was a financial burden, at the time they “weren’t real people yet with mortgages,” he said.

In addition to their stand in Amagansett on 284 Town Lane, they have a robust wholesale business through local restaurants like Nick and Toni’s as well as a member-supported community supported agriculture initiative that is going into its third year. They also have a stand at the Montauk, East Hampton and Springs farmers markets, although the markets are a “lot of work,” according to Mr. Balsam.

As a kid on the East End, he worked for many of the farming families, including the Daytons and Fosters. When he was interested in starting his own venture, familiarity with those families helped him out, as they leased him some of his first land. “It has to do with having the respect of the local farming families,” Mr. Balsam said.

The two partners currently own 30 acres of land, all of which they acquired this past December. In addition, they rent 60 acres across Amagansett, Sagaponack and East Hampton. Their plots are “not contiguous at all,” with some fields 8 miles apart, and that can often be a burden when it comes to moving equipment like tractors. During the summer, “it can take an hour just to go to Sagaponack,” Mr. Balsam said. Although they are happy to have leased land available, it is difficult for farmers not to own their own fields. “Any farmer is going to be a good steward, but the ancillary investments like a barn or irrigation or deer fencing, that is where it is difficult,” Mr. Balsam said, adding that the lack of readily available agricultural land is an overlooked aspect of farming on the East End.

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