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Colorado’s Renowned Sweet Corn Crop Faces New Challenges

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8min 50sec
William Woody/For CPR News, Special to The Colorado Sun
A harvest crew with Tuxedo Corn Company removes the first ears of the company’s Olathe Sweet Sweet Corn harvest from a field west of Pea Green Colorado Wednesday July 24, 2019. (William Woody, Special to the Sun)

You might have seen a sign on a veggie bin at your supermarket recently. If you’ve had Olathe corn before, you probably reached in and grabbed some. Olathe’s namesake crop is, by design, sweeter and more tender than you’re likely to find almost anywhere else. Turns out, though, the story, and the future, of Olathe corn is more complicated than it might seem. Let’s lend an ear to reporter Nancy Lofholm who visited the little farming town on the Western Slope and wrote about it for The Colorado Sun.