Luke Bryan Has Too Much Sweet Corn

While you were at home baking bread and watching Netflix during quarantine, Luke Bryan was outside, on a farm, planting acres and acres of sweet corn. Too much sweet corn, it turns out. “Me and my nephew Til — who has abandoned me, I haven’t seen him since the sweet corn started coming in — he and I planted it,” Bryan told Taste of Country Nights. “It’s almost like when you plant something like that, you don’t know what problem you’re creating.”

The American Idol judge, who grew up on a peanut farm in Georgia, first sought the advice of his father, Tommy, who advised him against planting so much corn. “I called my dad, and I’m like, ‘Dad, I wanna plant a big plot of sweet corn,’” Bryan recalled. “He’s like, ‘How big?’ I told him, like, four or five acres. He said, ‘Son, you’re an idiot. You won’t even know what to do with that much sweet corn.’” Along with an overly large return, Bryan shared that his produce project also left him with a significant financial loss.

“I bought a tractor, a tiller, a planter, a plow, fertilizer [but] … essentially, it was a money-losing endeavor,” he said. “Yeah, I’m in [for] a lot. I think I’ve only sold about $1,100 worth of sweet corn. So I’m about $30,000 in the hole on this farming operation.”

Despite his farming failure, Bryan shared that he’s always had a go big or go home mentality. “Small-scale stuff, I really have trouble with it,” he explained. “But if I can build a 10-acre bass lake, no, I’m gonna build a 20-acre bass lake. Or if I can get the 33-inch tires, I’m gonna try and get the 35-inch tires.”

The 44-year-old had initially documented his excess of sweet corn on Instagram in late July, posting a video of himself trudging through a field with a bucket full of his harvest in one hand. “Little tip for you guys, never get bored during the pandemic and plant four acres of sweet corn,” he said, succinctly summing up the situation in a caption that read “Sweet corn out the a—.”

Bryan’s wife, Caroline, and his mom, LeClaire, both gave their resident corn farmer a helping of “I told you so” in the comments. “I told you that y’all planted too much,” Caroline wrote. LeClaire added, “Maybe you will start listening to your mama.” The corn ultimately went to a good home — on his Instagram Story, Bryan told his followers that he had dropped off his harvest with a produce seller just outside of Nashville, handing off a supply that appears to be endless, much like the quarantine it was planted in.