Coaldale corn is local yellow gold

Southern Albertans love their corn — on the cob slathered in butter with salt and pepper, after being slow-roasted on barbecues across the hot summer prairie landscape.

Coaldale corn is a hot commodity, as Magill Corn aims to deliver.

“Well, the corn this season has been pretty good. We got the corn off to a pretty good start. We grow it under a biodegradable plastic,” said co-owner of the crop and corn expert Ivor Magill, adding Magill Corn available in Lethbridge and Coaldale is very local. The corn is also hand-picked fresh each and every morning before being sent off to customers to enjoy.

Magill Corn, which is located one mile west of Coaldale and south of Newco Commodities, is grown completely different than other farms dedicated to the growth of top-notch and tasty corn.

“Ivor’s Irish — over in Ireland they lay biodegradable plastic over top of the seeds. There’s not an abundance of it right now but we are getting some of it out. It’s basically a greenhouse effect,” added co-owner of the corn crop Tyler Sera.

Sera noted this is the first season he has been co-owner but in the past has given Magill a hand with the crop.

“This is the first year him and I kind of went partners in on it,” said Sera, adding Magill has grown corn for a number of years and Magill has also been previously involved in custom swathing and spraying and ice road trucking.

The crop, which Sera said is 10 acres of corn in the ground, should keep offering Coaldale and area residents the sweet treat until mid-September, with a wide-variety of selection.

“(We) seeded different varieties. We seeded it at different stages for some of the early varieties and some of the later varieties just so we could have corn throughout the year and carry through the summer,” said Sera, adding seeding started as early as possible in the spring.

Last year, Sera said, hail was responsible for any chance of getting a bumper crop out to corn connoisseurs throughout Lethbridge County.

“We didn’t get any last year because of all the hail. Last year, we were hoping for it, and then all that hail that came through — there was no crop to be had last year at all,” explained Sera.

Magill Corn is currently being sold at the Coaldale Food Market and at barns located in the parking lot at NC Spirits in Coaldale and at the Peavy Mart and Legion parking lots in Lethbridge. Sera said customers can call about putting in larger orders, as well.

“We’re small but we get it out there,” added Sera.

Magill said to be able to grow corn in the Lethbridge and Coaldale area and have it out to consumers early is quite an undertaking but with his corn growing system — corn is ready to roll, right off the cob. Magill has been involved in the corn-growing business since 2010.

“So far so good. There’s some really good corn out there,” said Magill.

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