Got a flyer in the mail for a store in Woodinville called County Market.
Apparently they just opened. There is another in Lake Stevens. Owned by
Super Valu and went in where Albertsons were. I went there only for the
corn and soda pop. They were the only store in this area with a good soda
sale. Limit of 4. Yes, I know that I could have gone back through the line
again but the sale price was 4/$11 which is a good price but not super good
and 4 will get me through until next week's sale.

Anyway... This store like many others had disposal bins where the corn was.
But what the shoppers were doing with them seemed odd. They didn't have a
lot of corn out there for sale. And people were all over it, partially
peeling back the husks, then looking disgusted and chucking it back down.
Every once in a while they would look happy and put an ear in their cart.

Normally when I see people make use of those disposal bins, they put all of
the husk and the silk in it. But not these people! They seemed to only be
putting the outer leaves in it and they weren't peeling the husk back any
further. What could they have been seeing at that point that made them
decide that the ear was bad? At least I peeled it back until I could see
the corn kernels. I bought the first two that I picked up. Seemed fine.
And no worms. That's one thing that I hate about buying fresh corn. I have
gotten a worm in it many times.

I only bought two because corn isn't really in season, I can't eat it and
daughter didn't want it. Husband does love corn on the cob so he can have
it tonight with steak, baked potato and salad. And then again tomorrow with
turkey and stuffing.

I doubt that I'll be going back to this store unless I just happen to be in
the area and/or they have another good sale. My overall impression was that
they were pretty much the same as Albertsons but with higher prices. All of
the food seemed to be the same. Nothing new to see there except for a
little change of decor.

wrote:
> ...corn starts deteriorating the minute it is exposed to air,
> it should never have the husk removed until you are ready
> to cook it. Better yet, cook it in the husk.

Almost right. Corn starts going down the minute it's picked, not
exposed to air. The best fresh corn is "pick it yourself" then go
right home and cook it or process it.

Sweet corn picked right off the plant doesn't even need to be cooked.
Husk it and eat it right there for the full flavor.

I never cook in the husk. I cut the kernels off then eat some within a
few hours or I bag them up to freeze. I often buy many starting about
now and freeze as much as I can stand to process. My last few frozen
bags usually go with Thanksgiving dinner.

Also, blanching corn before freezing is a worthless step. I cut the
kernels off the cob and bag them for the freezer immediately. Months
later, long after corn season, it's the best tasting corn available.
Way better than canned and still way better than commercially frozen
corn.

G.

On 5/17/2015 7:28 AM, Gary wrote:
> wrote:
>> ...corn starts deteriorating the minute it is exposed to air,
>> it should never have the husk removed until you are ready
>> to cook it. Better yet, cook it in the husk.
>
> Almost right. Corn starts going down the minute it's picked, not
> exposed to air. The best fresh corn is "pick it yourself" then go
> right home and cook it or process it.

Almost right. Starting in the 1980s, modern corn varieties have been
bred (that's "genetically engineered" to you alaramists) to _greatly_
slow the transformation in the corn kernals of sugar into starch.
Old-style corn varieties begin this process the moment the cob was
removed from the stalk; modern varieties will retain better than 80%
of their sugar content for up to a week after harvest. Many of those
varieties also have an enhanced sugary gene that makes them sweeter
than old-style corn, meaning they'll taste very sweet when very fresh,
and taste pretty much like the old-style corn varieties after sitting
around for a week or so.

This was such a big deal when the first varieties were commercially
released. I worked for a seed company/garden center back then, and we
contracted with a couple of local market growers who grew it for us to
sell direct in our garden center. We could keep it in the coolers for
a week and it still tasted much better than conventional corn
varieties. At the end of one unusually long growing season, the final
delivery arrived in mid-October. I held a dozen ears in the fridge
till Thanksgiving and we enjoyed them then. Like I said, that was back
in the 80s when corn was still a seasonal vegetable in most parts of
the country. Now, with more vegetables being flown in from around the
world, and with the newer varieties maintaining their freshness much
longer, it's no longer (just) a fleeting seasonal treat.