Eat some Idaho corn at the fair. It could help save your life one day. | Local News | Idaho Statesman
Most people don't know it, but the all-volunteer Idaho Mountain Search & Rescue Unit's largest regular source of income comes from corn.
Not just any corn, mind you - locally grown, boiled corn-on-the-cob that the group sells each August at the Western Idaho Fair.
They've been doing it for 45 years.
The 60-member search and rescue group, which is best known for its high-angle rescues in the mountains, sells corn for $2 an ear. The group makes $12,000 to $15,000 a year to fund rescue efforts (that's after costs, including 6 percent sales tax and the fair's 20 percent cut of proceeds). The money the group makes is up to half its annual operating budget of about $30,000.
The IMSRU booth is the longest-running at the fair, and one of only a few run by nonprofits, according to fair concessions manager Mike Oster.
Party Pups and Bonaminio aren't far behind at 43 and 44 years, respectively. The average length of stay of a food vendor is 15 to 17 years - and the waiting list is between 55 and 60.
The corn is delivered fresh daily to the IMSRU booth at the fairgrounds by Volcanic Farms in Gem County. The booth went through 12,350 ears of corn during last year's fair.
The booth sells and trades about 1,000 ears of corn each day, though it sold about 1,700 on the last Saturday of the fair last year.
"Volunteers shuck it throughout the day," said Charlotte Gunn, a longtime IMSRU volunteer and corn booth organizer.
Six to 10 volunteers staff the booth at any given time. They boil the corn, butter it and put it on a stick (they can hold the butter, if you ask). The volunteers sometimes trade corn for tasty items sold in other booths.
"Everybody gets bored with eating their own food by the end of the week," Gunn said. "The Basques are our friends. For many years, they were beside us. We used to trade for chorizos for a long time, but they moved up Food Row, closer to the entrance."
Volunteers sell corn from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. If they run out, the booth stays open and continues to sell pop and water.
The IMSRU booth has been in the same spot for a long time on Food Row, down near the fair rides. Keep your eyes peeled for it.
"There have been people who said they wanted to buy corn from us but couldn't find our booth," said Gunn, noting that the group doesn't get to choose the location.
It used to be that the IMSRU booth was the only corn booth at the fair, but in recent years it has had some competition from others selling roasted corn, Gunn said. This year, there is one other corn booth, Kornman, said fair officials.
Katy Moeller: 377-6413
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