Ask someone about sweet corn and almost inevitably, they'll start talking about their family.

And summer.

And how, when they were kids, everyone would gather at a cousin's house and they'd eat freshly picked corn out in the backyard at the picnic table.

And how good it tasted, with the sweetness of the corn, the melting butter and the sprinkle of salt.

How all would be right with the world.

And how they keep that tradition alive today.

"We'd always go to Aunt Dot's house for sweet roasted corn," Norm Arnold, 57, of Lancaster, said. "It was a Peach Bottom Road tradition. There was this big stone fireplace with a chimney in the backyard. They'd keep the husks on and use wet burlap bags. It was a combination of roasting and steaming. It was so good. It had this smoky, steamy taste."

Arnold can't tell you how long the corn was roasted.

"Only the aunts knew that secret," he said with a laugh. "We'd just put butter and salt on it. Good old Lancaster County cooking."  

Arnold still loves corn and will get up early to go out and get the freshest ears he can find.

"A lot of the time, it sells out," he said, shaking his head with a smile.  

"It was a ritual of summer," said George Eshelman, 58, who went to school at Lampeter-Strasburg High School with Arnold but now lives in New York City.

"My parents grew corn in the backyard, and we'd have fresh corn all summer. Jersey corn, which I can get at the farmers' market in New York,  is good, but we can't get it fresh like you can here."

Lancaster County grows approximately 2,000 acres of sweet corn each summer.

"The vast majority of corn we grow here (160,000 acres) is not sweet corn, it's  for animal feed," explained Leon Ressler, the county extension director with the Penn State Extension. "It's starchy and not very flavorful. The sweet corn is bred to be high in sugar content."

While July 4 is the traditional start of the sweet corn season, some corn is harvested in June. You can keep getting fresh corn through August into September.

This year, just about everyone agreed, the corn has been good.

"Sweet corn likes moisture and heat," Ressler explained. "Most sweet corn takes 90 days from planting to harvesting, though there is quite a variety of different kinds of corn and some takes only 70 or 80 days."

The key to Lancaster County sweet corn?

"It's that the producer and the consumer are located near each other," Ressler said. "After sweet corn is harvested, the sugars turn to starch and it's less sweet. The fresher the corn, the better off it will taste."

And people love their sweet corn.

"I have an aunt who can eat eight ears at one sitting," said Juliet Ide, 30. "I love it, but I can't eat that much."

Ide, who was in Lancaster visiting home, teaches overseas. She said the corn is pretty pathetic in Europe.

"I had it in London and it was about five inches long," she said. "It's something I miss in the summer. The crunch, the texture. It's wonderful."

Genetic advancements have made the shelf life of corn longer, but don't tell that to the people who head to produce stands for the freshest corn. They're looking for corn that's picked the same day they buy it.

Within the same hour would be even nicer.

On a recent hot July morning (like there have been any other kind this summer?), cars packed the parking lot of the Corn Wagon on Route 741, near New Danville. The stand has been selling fresh corn from the farm behind it for more than 40 years, and they literally bring in corn wagons filled with just-picked ears throughout the morning.

A saleswoman at the stand noted that Saturdays are even crazier than weekdays.

"Last Saturday, a whole wagon sold out in less than an hour," the woman said as she waited on an endless stream of customers eager to buy their sweet corn.

How much do they sell?

Nobody has any idea, she said with a laugh.  But it goes fast.

Susan Miller, 57, of Millersville, said she stops by at the Corn Wagon at least twice a week.

"We'd have these big get-togethers when I was a kid," she said. "I was the oldest of seven, and we had lots and lots of cousins. I have four kids, who are all in college now. We have cookouts on the weekend and grill the corn. I try to  recreate that, make memories like my mom did."

Geraldine Brown, of Lancaster, is planning a family reunion for this weekend, with about 150 people expected.

Corn is definitely on the menu.

"When we get together, we always have corn," she said. "Everyone will bring a few dozen ears."

Joel Ulrich, of Columbia, was busy selecting 21 dozen ears. Today was Corn Day.

"My wife and I freeze it for winter," he explained. "We pick one day in the summer to buy the corn, and we husk it and take the silk off, blanche it on the cob then cut it all off and put it into freezer bags."

It's a family tradition. Ulrich said his mother and sister are planning on doing 100 dozen ears the next day.

"My wife and I try to carry on those family traditions, those family values," he said. "We want our daughter, who is 2, to be a part of it."

Ulrich, 31,  noted that both he and his wife work and lead busy, hectic lives.

"We make the time for this. It's very dear to us," he said.

"I always tell my kids how lucky we are to live in Lancaster County," said Miller, who bought a dozen ears for her daughter and a dozen ears for herself. "There isn't a better place to find sweet corn. It tastes like summer, doesn't it?"

jholahan@lnpnews.com