The long wait is over — Taber corn has finally hit the streets.
Jensen’s corn stands saw their first full of action Friday, as vendors were out on Highway 3 at Lubex and across from the old Safeway building downtown.
Ferris Zaugg, manned the location in the Lubex parking lot, and said corn was actually out Thursday for a four-hour span.

“We started at four o-clock and by just before eight we had 35 sacks sold.”
Jensen stands opened at 10 a.m. Friday, and both were sold out again by early afternoon. A fresh shipment came in just before 2 p.m.
Taber was the first and only place where corn was being sold late last week, but judging by the vehicles that had stopped by the Highway 3 corn stand, our famous export was making the rounds anyway.
“We’ve had people stop by from Saskatchewan, B.C. and all over southern Alberta — Raymond, Crowsnest Pass, everywhere,” said Zaugg, who added early reviews have been positive. “I’ve had people who bought yesterday and loved it and came back today.”
Allen Jensen, who came by with a fresh load of corn to satisfy the long line up that had already formed around the stand, said it has been tough to get the corn ready for sale on the fresh market.
“This is almost the latest year I can ever remember. Fourteen years ago it was out a few days later on my daughter’s birthday. That’s the latest we’ve ever started.”
The last three years, in fact, have all been late for corn maturing, but 2010 has taken the cake.
“It’s been very challenging — the worst ever,” said Jensen, who said growers battled through early-spring cold and continuing boughts of rainfall.
Only in the last few years has the corn rapidly maturing, under the southern Alberta heat growers had long been yearning for. And if all goes according to plan, Jensen’s corn will be available in Taber on the weekend as well, and in other parts of southern Alberta soon after.
“The beginning of (this) week we’ll have it out in Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Brooks, Claresholm, Fort Macleod and Pincher Creek,” said Jensen.
As that happens, the corn pickers and sorters will really have a job on their hands.
“When we get really busy we start at 2:30 or 3 a.m. On our corn line we probably have 25 people working.”
That work will continue into the fall this year, as the late start will mean corn will be available longer than usual, according to Jensen.
“It will be out until late September, as long as it doesn’t freeze.”