A central Pennsylvania farmer was surprised to discover he grew a four-headed ear of corn.

Ben Klunk, of Hanover, Pa., said an ear of corn from his crop sprouted four heads, something the lifelong farmer has never seen before.

"I've never been too lucky," Klunk told The Evening Sun. "This is a once in a lifetime ear of corn."

Klunk who spotted the rare corn last week has been keeping it in his refrigerator, hoping to either donate it to science or put it on display. He didn’t make mention of eating the rare find, the Associated Press reports.

This isn’t the first mutant vegetable to make headlines. Last month, viral photos allegedly taken in Japan of deformed fruits and veggies – tomatoes with tumor-like growths, giant cabbage and conjoined peaches -- began to appear online. While some pointed to the connection between the mutated vegetables as stemming from the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant meltdown, the cause remains unclear.

“We have seen some evidence of increased mutation rates in plants and barn swallows in Fukushima, but we have not had the funding to do the sort if rigorous science that is necessary to examine such questions in a convincing manner,” Timothy Mousseau, a biology professor at the University of South Carolina, who is studying fauna in Fukushima, told ABCNews.com.

“The vegetable photos are suggestive but, at present, are only anecdotal. Follow-up studies need to be conducted by qualified researchers to verify the validity of these observations,” he added.

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