Every August, our elotes get noticeably sweeter, and our regulars notice. The reason is about twenty minutes north of the restaurant at Hollow Creek Farm, where the Brandt family has been growing sweet corn for three generations, just like we’ve been making tortillas for three.
Last week, Sofía and Miguel drove up before sunrise to spend a morning in the rows.
Picked at dawn
Sweet corn starts converting its sugar to starch the moment it leaves the stalk, so timing is everything. At Hollow Creek, picking starts at first light while the ears are still cool. By the time we pull up to the farm stand, the first wagon is already full.
“People think sweet corn is about the variety,” says Karen Brandt, who runs the farm with her son Tyler. “Variety matters, but freshness matters more. Corn picked this morning and corn picked three days ago are two different vegetables.”
That’s why we get our delivery the same morning it’s picked, three days a week, from late July until the first frost.
From the field to the grill
Most of that corn becomes elotes: grilled until charred, brushed with lime crema, rolled in crumbled cotija, and dusted with chile powder. We also cut it off the cob for esquites, the cup-style version, which is easier to eat if you’re on the patio with a drink in your other hand.
And for a few weeks every year, Sofía blends fresh corn into our masa for a limited run of sweet corn tortillas. They’re slightly golden and a little sweet, and they pair perfectly with our carnitas.
Two families, one table
What we love most about working with Hollow Creek isn’t the corn. It’s the people. Karen’s father sold sweet corn to Abuela Rosa out of the back of a pickup truck in the 1990s, and the two families have been trading recipes and tomatoes ever since. Tyler swears our elotes are better than anything he makes at home. We told him the corn is doing most of the work.
Get it while it lasts
Elotes and esquites with Hollow Creek corn are on the menu now through the end of the season, usually mid-September. Hollow Creek also has a farm stand open Wednesday through Sunday if you want to take some home. Tell them Lomelee’s sent you.
Lomelee’s is a fictional restaurant, and the people, places, and events in this post are made up for a portfolio demo site.