LORDSTOWN — Locally loved sweet corn from Lutz Farms will not be sold this year.

Co-owner Harvey Lutz said the decision was not an easy one, but the pandemic and other factors played roles in why the farm, 2688 S. Leavitt Road, isn’t producing corn this year.

“Last year we got through it, but COVID-19 made our work demand above and beyond our normal — and now this year we’ve been losing help… so we’re running on a skeleton crew,” Lutz said. “We thought with all of that and other projects going on, we wanted to take a breather and fix things that needed fixed at the farm level.”

On social media, the farm announced “many factors both personal and business went into making this difficult decision.”

“We had a family talk about it, weighed the pros and cons and thought of the repercussions but we still feel, at the farm level, it’s worth it for us to take a breather and fix things,” he said.

Among those items that need to have more attention are fixing the parking lot and taking down some barns and silos.

“We only have a certain number of people to do what we want to do,” Lutz said. “We used to be a dairy farm and we took down three barns and some silos, fixed the parking lot, the building we sell in is going to be painted. We’ve got all sorts of things going on. Everything was put on hold so we’re going forward with sprucing things up this year.”

According to the farm’s website, Lutz Farms is “probably best known for their sweet corn,” but Lutz said the farm grows 2,400 acres of other crops. Lutz said during the weeks the farm sells sweet corn, those other crops take a back seat to the corn production.

“Every summer we put things on hold and after 28 years things are starting to catch up. So we wanted to do a better job at the other side too,” Lutz said.

The halt in production, however, is only for this year and any decision to grow more will come on an annual basis, Lutz said.

“I guess it’ll be a year at a time but this year we’re just taking a breather. We’ve done it for 28 years, and the younger generation is here; so it’ll be in their lap for next year,” he said.

People would call in and line up to buy the sweet corn. But Lutz said the profits from selling corn are very little compared to the other crops the farm sells.

“The revenue will be very close without 16 people involved,” Lutz laughingly said. “It takes five weeks of our lives out of our summer. We work all night and half of the next day so we’re like zombies after about five weeks.”

Also in the social media post, the farm recognized its frequent customers and thanked them for their loyalty, saying “we have often said we have the best customers on earth.” Lutz said the initial response from the public was a mix of surprise and understanding.

“It was too much going on for only a few guys,” he added.

nhawthorne@tribtoday.com