"Carmel Corn 4 Deer"

"Carmel Corn 4 Deer" CROPS Miscellaneous 34-2-6 Sweet corn growers often find it impossible to get their entire crop harvested and marketed as fresh product because of over mature or small/deformed ears. George Hubka, Dowling, Mich., wanted to recover some income from this normally wasted product, so he came up with what he calls "Carmel Corn 4 Deer." It's made by coating ears of sweet corn with molasses or caramel. "It lets me convert normally unmarketable sweet corn into a value-added product," says Hubka, who markets the product direct to hunters and wholesales it to sporting goods stores. Sweet corn ears are harvested and then coated with liquid molasses by dipping them into a tank. After the molasses has been allowed to drip dry, the ears are packaged into mesh bags. A label is attached with the product name, ingredients (mature sweet corn ears and molasses), number of ears in the bag, and the producer's name and address. "The molasses on the corn gives off an odor that really attracts deer," says Hubka, who entered the idea in this year's Farm Bureau invention contest. An 80-count bag of "Carmel Corn 4 Deer" has a suggested retail price of $2.99. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, George Hubka, 3691 Bristol Oaks Dr., Dowling, Mich. 49050 (ph 269 721-3830; geo_mgnews@yahoo.com).

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