By Lori EhdeHarvest is still a few weeks away for area grain farmers, but local produce suppliers have been scrambling for weeks.Harvest for them is a summer-long event.Vegetables and melons ripen for sale among golden ears, and not long after their season ends, pumpkins and gourds crop up for seasonal shoppers.This time of year, chances are any sweet corn purchased in a grocery store or at a vendor’s stand originated somewhere near Adrian.Pat Dorn, for example, has direct-sale stands on South Highway 75 at the railroad tracks in Luverne and at the 10th Street and Cliff Avenue Lewis stores in Sioux Falls.He farms more than 900 acres of corn and soybeans just east of Adrian, but he and his wife, Cammie, also have more than 50 thriving acres of sweet corn and garden produce that supplies their growing direct-sale market."We enjoy doing this, getting out and dealing with the people," Dorn said Monday. "People like to buy their produce direct, and it’s definitely the way to go for us. It’s harder work, but that’s like anything — if you want to make the money, you have to put in the work."The produce business has been strong in Dorn’s neighborhood.Doug Bullerman, who supplies a vending stand on the Dairy Queen parking lot in Luverne, is Dorn’s neighbor three miles away.Also in that area near Adrian are Chad and Stacy Hokeness, who have several stands in Sioux Falls and surrounding area, and are the official sweet corn suppliers for the Minnesota State Fair, St. Paul."We’ve been just swamped trying to get corn out of the field before Labor Day," Stacy said Tuesday. Incidentally, deep-fat-fried sweet corn has been rated the most popular food at the fair this year.Also not far from Adrian are Gary and Lynette Lonneman, who have a rural Rushmore address.They have been the "locally-grown sweet corn" suppliers for grocery stores such as Glen’s Food Center in Luverne and County Market in Worthington.Cool summer, slow growingThe last days of summer are typically hectic for local produce suppliers."Once school starts, kids are eating in school, and people just aren’t buying at the stands as much," Dorn said.Adding to the pressure this year, however, is a cool, slow growing season."Everything is so late," he said. "You want to get the corn, melons and tomatoes on the stands as early as possible, but we couldn’t get picking as early, because they weren’t ripe."That, he said, has hurt business. "It’s just like anything else — the further out you go the less you sell," he said. "People want that first taste of fresh produce early in the season."To get a jump on the season, Dorn contracts with growers in Missouri to stock his sweet corn stands as early as mid-June.By July 4, Adrian corn is typically ready. Dorn said he plants his sweet corn in 15- to 20-acre increments, so that it’s not all ripe at once.With the growing season several weeks behind, vending stands will be stocked for awhile."We still have a lot of sweet corn left," Dorn said. "We’ll be selling until it freezes. … I’ve never had any ears freeze off, but this year it’s a guarantee. I’m going to have some freeze off."The slow growing season hasn’t affected the quality of area produce."The ears have been very nice … the quality has been as good as ever; we just don’t have the volume," Dorn said.He said he typically sets up more stands in Luverne and Sioux Falls, but it’s been too difficult to keep them stocked.Normally, local produce suppliers would soon start selling pumpkins, gourds, corn shocks and other fall, seasonal products."That’s probably going to get pushed back, because we’re still selling corn," Dorn said. "Last year at this time, we had a lot of that on the stands already."To make matters worse, the Aug. 3 wind and rain flattened vegetable plants and blew corn stalks over, making picking more difficult on the plants that survived."It’s definitely been the most challenging year I’ve seen," said Dorn, who’s been selling produce for 15 years.