Sweet Times Savoring the Sweet Corn Harvest

Visitors savor the sweet corn

More than fifty years after AUB introduced sweet corn to Lebanon, the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences (FAFS) is still the only supplier in Lebanon of the best sweet corn varieties available on the US market. Every year during the sweet corn harvest the Agricultural Research and Education Center (AREC) organizes Sweet Corn Day in order to share this tasty vegetable with the AUB community.

This year was no different, except that the event held on August 19 attracted a record number of 800 guests, who flocked to the Beqa'a valley, where the AUB farm is located, to get a first taste of the golden crop and enjoy a day full of festivities.

Kids squealed to their hearts content in fields of hay, old and young went on hayrides and tours around the farm, and a special folk dance group from Baalbek performed a traditional Lebanese marriage and danced the dabkeh. The day began with a delicious breakfast of manakeesh and was later followed by a lunch of barbecued chicken, baked potatoes, salad, hommos, fruits, and lots of sweet corn.

The event was sponsored by FAFS-AREC, TANMIA, and UNIFERT. Among those attending were FAFS alumnus Musa Freiji, representing Tanmia; FAFS alumnus Khalil Melki, representing UNIFERT, AUB Provost Peter Heath and his family; Dean Nahla Hwalla and her husband; and Vice President James Radulski, as well as many AUB professors and staff and their families.

"When we first introduced this crop to Lebanon in 1955, people could not believe that corn was actually edible," said Nicolas Haddad, the farm manager. "At that time, field corn was only used as animal feed." The Lebanese taste for sweet corn has come a long way since then.