When the Lapp family of Akron got together recently for its annual "putting up" of 15 dozen ears of sweet corn — shaving and saving the kernels to freeze for use later — they got a little help from ...

Harvesting corn in a $300,000, eight-row combine is a solitary, highly mechanized business. Such was not always the case. Up through the late 1930s, most corn was picked not by machine, but by hand.

How does the sweet corn business work in Iowa? Richard DeMoss, a Gilbert-area farmer who has driven into Ames for the last 39 years to sell the stuff that Iowans crave, can tell you. First you need ...