(UPDATE June 5, 2017 – 9 a.m.): First weekend of sweet corn nets record 78,473 ears sold
(UPDATE June 3, 2017 – 9 a.m.): First day sales for Fresno State sweet corn: record 38,586 ears.
Fresno State’s campus-grown sweet corn will be available for the first time this year at 7 a.m. Friday, June 2, at the Rue and Gwen Gibson Farm Market (5368 N. Chestnut Ave.).
Customers can choose from the traditional yellow and white varieties of the market’s most popular product.
Corn will be sold at 40 cents per ear throughout the summer with supplies expected to move fast. A dozen-count bag of yellow corn will also be available for $6 during opening weekend to save customers time.
“This is a time of the year that we all look forward to at the Gibson Farm Market,” said David Sieperda, campus farm manager. “Our vegetable crop unit takes great pride in carefully growing Fresno State sweet corn and exposing our student workers to the daily aspects of crop management, which is a key part of our University’s mission. An extra reward is seeing the smiles on Gibson Farm Market shoppers as they take home our product to share with friends and families all around the Central Valley.”
The store will have special weekend hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday; 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, June 3; and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, June 4.
Last year more than 200 shoppers lined up outside at the Gibson Farm Market on the first morning of sweet corn sales. If that occurs again this year, groups will again be let in periodically to remain within the building’s capacity of 50 customers at a time.
More than 740,000 ears were sold in 2016. Shoppers purchased 36,892 ears on opening day last year and 118,000 ears in the opening week.
The product was first grown on campus fields in 1981 and was first sold to the public in 1982.
Sweet corn is raised on the 1,000-acre University Agricultural Laboratory that sponsors 22 enterprises and provides student-made dairy, food processing, fruit, horticulture, livestock, meat, nut and wine products to the Gibson Farm Market.
About $1 million in products are sold each year at the market to support Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology students and programs.
The store will resume its normal summer hours on Monday, June 5: 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays.
For more information, contact 559.278.4511 or farmmarket@fresnostate.edu or visit the Gibson Farm Market’s Facebook page at Fresno State Farm Market
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