Katie Herring is sales and marketing manager at Cultivate

STRAIGHT from the cob and slathered in butter is how I’ll be enjoying the newest summer veggie to hit the Cultivate VegVan shelves.

Sandy Lane Farm’s organic sweetcorn is a delight when it’s in season, so I am really glad to have back on the VegVan this year.

If, like me, you ever drive down the A415 to Frilford, you’ll be pretty familiar with the site of corn growing in the fields as it forms part of the Millets Farm Maize Maze.

But it turns out that this is not the same stuff you might enjoy at a summer BBQ.

There are lots of different varieties of maize and all have different flavours and qualities.

Standard sweetcorn is markedly different from other types of corn due to a natural mutation that causes the kernels to accumulate about two times more sugar and a lot less starch than other varieties.

This means it can be harvested when immature to eat as a vegetable.

Other types of maize, like dent and flint corn, contain more hard starches than sweetcorn does which means they are better suited to be used as livestock feed, ground into flour or used for popcorn.

As sweetcorn matures its sugars will begin converting to starch and the kernels will become tough, so it should be eaten, canned or frozen as soon as possible after picking. Lucky for us at Cultivate, George harvests his corn fresh from his farm in Tiddington each week before we trade so it’s as close to picking it yourself as we can make it.

With its higher sugar content, you might assume sweetcorn isn’t the healthiest option but in actual fact it contains roughly the same amount of calories as an apple and half the sugar.

It’s also cholesterol-free, a good source of fibre and vitamin C and A, and it’s very high in antioxidants.

It’s gluten-free and delicious when turned into cornbread.

As a sweet treat that’s good for you, it’s easy to see why it’s not only a popular veggie at our Oxford stops but also around the world for thousands of years.