Shucking some sweet corn yesterday, I marveled at how impossible it is to know whether or not you've got good corn until you get it home and look beneath the surface. (And really not until you pull it out of the boiling water, butter it up and sink your teeth in.)
All 12 ears I bought looked the same at the market.
At home I shucked ten beautiful ears and then I pulled back the husk on the 11th and ... gross!
No indication on the outside that there's a nasty worm at work, destroying the corn on the inside, eating the good stuff and leaving a mess.
I guess it crawls in there when both it and the ear are small and young and the worm just starts its destructive path at the top and keeps moving deeper.
It's not the corn's fault. It is not like the worm was invited. And once invaded, the ear has no defenses against the worm or the destruction it brings.
Fortunately, if caught early enough, the ear is not lost entirely. What can be salvaged, is salvaged and still serves its purpose. After all, the same price was paid for it as the others, so what's left should still be put to good use if possible.
All of this is true for corn.
And more than corn.
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