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Sweet-corn stalks, browned and sharpened by the late-summer sun, stand guard at the perimeter of Rae Rusnak’s squash fields in Kenyon, MN. Their main purpose? To protect the valuable squash that will land on children’s lunch trays in the Minneapolis and Kenyon-Wanamingo school districts.
“By the time the squash is far enough along for the deer to notice, the corn is high all around it,” says Rusnak, owner of L&R Produce and University of Minnesota alumna (BS ’85). “Deer don’t like the bristly stalks and leave the squash alone.”
It’s not much corn, but the stalks protect the squash until after the harvest.