This family’s yellow-and-green stands have kept Wichita in sweet corn for 21 summers
It’s that magical time of year when Wichitans willingly stand in long lines to get vegetables — but these vegetables are the color of the summer sun, come straight from the field each morning and deliver a sweet and satisfying crunch that locals crave all year.
July 3 was the first day of the season for Gaeddert Farms Sweet Corn, a business based in Buhler that is famous for the six-sided green-and-yellow canopied stands it sells its ears of sweet corn from every summer. The business now has 11 stands, including five in Wichita, and they’re always open from late June or early July until around the second week of August.
The summertime sweet corn stands are a side business for sisters Tonya Martisko and Julie Bell, who in the 1980s were the elementary school-age Gaeddert sisters selling ears of corn from the sidewalk in front of their grandparents’ house in Buhler.
When they first started, they grew the corn in a little patch at their grandparents’ farm and then sold the ears to family members and locals. Almost four decades later, the farm now belongs to their parents, and 100 acres of it are used to grow the sweet corn, which the sisters usually plant starting in April.
The corn is popular, to put it mildly. Though Martisko said she’s never tallied how many ears they sell in a single season, she estimates that they sold more than 30,000 on opening day this year.
On social media, people are effusive about the corn, which costs $6.50 for a dozen ears.
“Worth standing in line for!” one customer wrote on Facebook. “Had some on the grill last night. Best ever!”
“I got a dozen the other day, and it was so good we had it 2 nights in a row,” wrote another.
Martisko said she and her sister still love reading through comments like that.
“People have no idea how much work this is,” she said. “It’s nice to see all that appreciation. People like it because it’s fresh. We sell it the same day we pick it. It’s local, so it’s not like buying it from a grocery store where it could have come from Georgia and sat on a truck for days.”
Fresh from the corn field
Though she can’t remember exactly which year she and her sister and cousins started selling the corn grown on their family farm, Martisko said, she can remember the first year they erected a stand and started selling to the wider public.
It was 1999, and the family built its first stand based off of a design used by a grower they knew in Minnesota. He still makes the stands’ yellow-and-green canopies to this day.
They set up the first stand in Hutchinson. The next year, they expanded into Wichita, adding a stand on West Street.
As word about the quality of the sweet corn spread, more and more people came, she said. And as the people came, the family built more stands and added more plantings. In the beginning, they harvested corn from a single planting that lasted about a week. These days, they plant enough corn to last six to eight weeks.
The process of getting corn to the stands starts early each morning of the season, when Martisko’s son heads into the fields at 3 a.m. with a corn-picking machine. A group of about 20 to 25 kids show up to the farm at 5 a.m. and start sorting the ears and packing them up to go to the stands, which are open Tuesdays through Saturdays.
The seasonal stand workers store the corn in shaded areas (at a couple of locations, the family has added a second stand just for storage) and distribute ears in their signature yellow Gaeddert Farms plastic bags to a steady stream of customers. The process became a bit more high tech last year, when the stands started accepting credit cards in addition to cash. The business also added online ordering, which allows people to pay in advance and skip the lines. (People who visit the stands can also get jellies, baked goods and produce such as peaches, cantaloupe, cherries, onions and cucumbers.)
Technology advancements also have helped the sisters grow a better product, Martisko said. They’re now able to plant several different varieties through the season, all of which produce ears of corn with yellow and white kernels. And it’s all sold the same day it’s picked.
“The varieties who choose are for flavor,” she said. “We don’t choose for shelf life.”
(Tip: Martisko says that the corn gets progressively bigger through the season. In the first few weeks, ears are smaller but will be at their peak size mid-season.)
Over the years, the sisters have perfected their practices, though they were reminded this year that something can always surprise them.
After they’d advertised that they’d have the first sweet corn of the season at stands on July 2, the farm’s corn picker blew a hydraulic line and stopped working. Eager customers were lined up at the stands in Wichita and in other nearby towns, but there was no corn to be had.
The machine was back up and running by July 3, though, and people were able to get their July 4 corn on Saturday — which is when super long lines formed.
“Friday was rough to say the least,” Martisko said. “But most of our customers are very good. We have the best customers. We appreciate them so much.”
Another Kansas crop
The corn business has become a full-time occupation for Martisko and Ball, though they’ve found other uses for their corn field during the off season.
Until 2019, the sisters ran a successful seasonal corn maze and pumpkin patch on the family farm, which is at 13209 E. 82nd Ave. in Buhler. It was open for 20 years, but two years ago, the duo decided it was “time for a change,” Martisko said.
In 2019, they debuted a new attraction: a 20-acre sunflower field that people can wander through, taking pictures and enjoying the picturesque Kansas landscape. The sunflowers bloom starting in late August, and the family creates pathways through the fields
The sisters will put on their Sunflower Festival from Aug. 21 to Sept. 11, an event that will include a Sunflower Trail Run and a sunflower craft market. There will also be live music and food trucks.
The sunflower fields were particularly popular last year and served as a draw for pandemic-weary Kansans, Martisko said.
“People just wanted to get outside,” she said. “It was a great opportunity for us.”
People can find a schedule for the Sunflower Festival at www.kansasmaze.com/events.
Where to get Gaeddert Sweet Corn
Sweet corn will be sold through the second week of August at these stands in the Wichita area:
Woodlawn and K-96 in the Home Depot parking lot, open from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays
21st and Webb at Cambridge Market, open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays
West Street and St. Louis in the US Logo parking lot, open 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays
Central and Tyler in the Ace Hardware parking lot, open 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays
119th and 21st St. in the Zach’s Car Wash parking lot, open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays
Kansas Grown Farmers Market, 21st and Ridge, 7 a.m. to noon Saturdays only
15333 Red Powell Drive in Derby in the Atwoods parking lot, open from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays
Kellogg and Andover Road in Andover in the Atwoods Parking Lot, open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays
Main and Ninth St. in Newton at the Little Caesar’s Pizza parking lot, open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays
Outside of the Wichita area: There are also stands in Salina, McPherson and Hutchinson, and the corn is sold at the Reno County Farmers Market in Hutchinson on Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. to noon. For a complete list, visit www.gaeddertfarms.com
This story was originally published July 9, 2021 at 4:07 AM.
.jpg)