That’s why I said “most” people.
The families who lost their income wouldn’t have found any comfort at all in eating the fungus that left them crawling to the bank for help.
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I always thought it was to look for worms. Worms don’t bother me, I just cut off that part. If the worms aren’t even eating it, how can it be good?
Recently, after reading about it on another thread here, I used that large trash can to husk my corn for the first time. It takes a long time and makes a lot of mess. I don’t know if I will do it again. I usually steam or microwave in the husk and all the silk comes off very easily.
YES! I believe in this 100%. Out of season, I only eat frozen corn. If an ear’s mane doesn’t smell field-y, I put it back.
Same reasoning I’ve heard and it has served me very well. I haven’t had an average watermelon in 3 years. But I only buy watermelon in-season and local, and 95% of the time at farmer’s markets.
I always wonder if anyone else in the world does this! In fact, at Trader Joe’s, if the sticker doesn’t tell you, you can ask them and they can usually find out for you. I only buy watermelon a couple times a year from TJ’s when they have local ones in stock.
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Sweet fruits are unhealthy. We should eat sour fruits. Just saying.
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Yes dark green, with a very yellow, yellow, lots of webbing and heavy for its size
@Rooster, yes, my nose knows!!! If a cantaloup smells like a potato, its not going to taste like much!!! Needs to smell like cantaloup 
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Yes, definitely avoid sweet fruit. Let us take the fall.
Since egg prices have been skyrocketing, I keep telling everyone eggs are bad for your cholesterol, along with shrimp and crab. But no one wants to listen. Spread the word.
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You cannot spread the word without a catchy theme song.
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Where were you when we needed you? 
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I have to say it bugs me to see peeled corn at the market. I usual look for heavy ears and have rarely been disappointed when peeling them at home
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It annoys me no end when people just yank back a big section of the husk, but I don’t do that. I gently pull back just enough to check out a small area of just the first couple of rows. If it’s started to get moldy or decayed, it generally shows up there first.
It’s not the first thing I look for (that would be weight for its size, and firmness in response to a gentle squeeze), and I’m not looking for absolutely perfect ears, I just want to check for obvious flaws. And on the flipside, if I get to the store after their stock is depleted and don’t feel like waiting until my next trip to the store and a better selection, I have no problem taking the “nicest” of what’s left, including slightly-peeled back husks and minor flaws I’d avoid if there were a better selection…
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Wouldn’t you really really want that smut, if you are talking about huitlacoche?
Thoroughly infected ears are huitlacoche, and those would never (or virtually never) make it past a very first stage, superficial inspection to find their way onto “the shelf” among sweet corn ears.
And in any event, I’m pretty sure “huitlacoche” only happens it infects growing ears and then is harvested at “the right time”. But the small areas of “mushy black stuff” you sometimes see at the tips of ears that got too wet in transit and/or sat around too long afterward (especially in excessively warm temperatures), aren’t “huitlacoche”, and nobody wants that… You can analogize it to blue cheese versus “moldy cheese”. Blue cheese is “blue” due to mold, but mold that infects the cheese in the right way, at the right time (at least originally, before humans learned to harness it intentionally), while even the very same mold species will “ruin” otherwise good cheese if and when they “infect” it at the wrong time, in the wrong way. Even old “blue cheese” that’s kept in storage too long, when the originally “beneficial” veins of mold in the cheese get out of hand and overgrow the cheese, gets pretty gross…
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I don’t shuck but run my fingers along the husk looking for gaps.
This reminds me of a previous thread about the peelers vs non-peelers. People were pretty passionate about the pros and cons of this practice.
I’m a corn peeker. I don’t peel a whole side of corn to check the quality. I do open the top half inch or so to check the kernels. I’m looking for uniform, fresh looking kernels, not starting to dry out. I’m also checking for little worm(s), because that happened once and it friggin creeped me out when I was cleaning them at home. I don’t like worms. 
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I’v read that it’s not optimal to pick corn with all the kernels developed at the tip: apparently a sign of too-late harvest. The advice was to find a middle ground between scraggly tip and bursting-with-moisture ones.
Never knew about the tip but maybe it’s why I look for heavy ears. More moisture??
I go buy visual inspection and feel. A gentle run of my hand over the cob tells me the firmness of the kernels, if they are well formed and if there are any gaps. Looking at the silk gives an indicator of freshness and condition. Same with the husk. Handling the cob you can feel the weight.
Really, the only surprise might be color of the kernels and perhaps a worm.
Husking the cob before you are ready to cook it ages the corn - the husk and silk help keep it from drying out.
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Can someone fix the “your” in the title of this post? It’s making me stabby.
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Better? 
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Bless you. You have made the world a better place.
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Thank you!!! Not to mention, the second you open and discard an ear of corn it needs to be thrown away. No one else will buy it. I must admit I buy all of my corn at our local farmstand/green grocer. I’ve rarely found corn that wasn’t wonderful. In addition to feeling for firmness, feel for weight. I’ve fought with lots of people (mostly older men, surprisingly enough) over this issue. Don’t ruin the corn!
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