Pulse Article

Philadelphicon: None Such Farm

A local family continues its tradition of corn-growing.

By Janine White

Photograph by Jason Varney
Time was, if you were eating sweet corn in Philadelphia, you were eating sweet corn from Buckingham’s None Such Farm. There, the Yerkes family has been growing the season’s best kerneled crops for just about five decades — and in its heyday, the 300-acre farm had the corn market all but cornered, with its ears in Acme aisles and beyond. Today, three generations in — and a fourth (pictured) in training — None Such has downsized to 35 acres and canned the wholesaling, but brothers Jon and Scott Yerkes remain knee-deep in ears, plucking the day’s harvest every morning from seven-foot-high stalks. They still know how to pick ’em: The farm’s market sells upwards of 17,000 ears a week directly to those folks for whom None Such will always mean a beloved summer ritual: Pennsylvania August-picked corn boiled in Mom’s pot, piled on a plate, slathered in (real) butter, and nibbled to the salty nub.
Originally published in Philadelphia magazine, August 2008
 

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