On today’s KVNF Farm Friday, we travel to Tuxedo Corn Company’s processing plant in Olathe. Co -Owner/operator David Harold talked about the history and processing of the famous Olathe Sweet -Sweet corn just outside of the packing plant.
"I don't know why it's called Tuxedo Corn. I've asked my dad that many times. He's the one who who came up with that name. And he doesn't know how he came up with that, so, thirty some years now that we've been doing this, we started very differently than where we we are now," Harold told the tour group.
Harold said migrant farmer workers are currently picking sweet corn on nearly 1,000 local acres.
"When it gets here, this big forklift will take twelve pallets at a time and offload them and set them up there. And inside the shed we have the ice pile, cold rooms and then the the square machine with the hoses is a big slushy machine that pressurizes inside that box and injects water and ice slurry, uh, into the containers. So it gives them a nice freezing cold bath and ice gets left in the boxes and then put into the cold room or onto trucks."
In the past Olathe Sweet -Sweet corn was shipped as far as California, Washington state, Virginia and Georgia. Now, due to the high cost of shipping, labor laws and a recent problem with pests, Harold says the product stays a bit closer to home.
"So the total harvest this year will be right around nine hundred acres. We used to ship far and wide, but the buy local movement, if you want to call it that, has made it harder. Uh, freight rates are harder. Our competitiveness has declined. Our price is high," he said.
Founder John Harlod says the recent Trump Administration's policy on immigrant workers hasn't affected Tuxedo Corn.
"Twenty years ago, we decided to use the H-2a program, and so we brought one hundred and sixty some odd people this year, all of them under the H-2a program. They're legal," he said.
Former Montrose Mayor Barbara Bynum talked about the value of Valley Food Partnership farm tours.
"I find these farm tours to be so interesting, to learn more about our ag community and the challenges they face and the successes they have being in our valley here. I've walked with John Harold through his corn fields, so I'm really excited today to see the packing plant where we are now," Bynum said.
