When is a fruit not a fruit?

     It's been quite a revelation to discover that many of what we have come to know as vegetables are in reality fruits.  When something starts out as a blossom on a stem and eventually becomes something more, it is a legitimate fruit.  Permit me to give you some other examples:  There is the entire squash family.  You know, the familiar ones like zucchini, pumpkin, cucumber, watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew and gourds.  Yup, technically they are all fruits.  Then there is also the family of beans: green, wax, lima, fava, long & soy.  And within the bean family are also the peas that we look forward to and enjoy each Spring.  And how about the avocado?  Yes, that too, is a fruit.  And an interesting one at that.  Did you know that avocados do not ripen until after they are picked?  So the farmers that grow them actually store them on the tree until they are harvested and shipped.
     But perhaps the most unlikely fruit that we enjoy is corn.  Corn you say, a fruit?  Well, yes it is.  Because each individual grain on an ear of corn is a miniature fruit that is mainly seed.  But when you think of it, the silks or tassel that we remove before cooking corresponds to the parts of a blossom that we observe in our flowers.
     We consume fresh corn approximately 3 weeks after pollination while the fruits are still immature and their storage tissues are still sweet and juicy.  But a word of caution about that much sought after sweetness that we long for as the days of Summer wane.  In 3 days traditional sweet corn converts half of it sugar into tasteless starch.  That is a good reason to avoid supermarket corn which has probably spent more than that time period to get from where it was pulled to the store display.  Instead wait patiently until the local farm stands have fresh picked ears that only a few hours earlier were still in the field, like this vendor's at the St. Paul Farmer's Market:

 

     There are many successful methods for cooking corn on the cob, from grilling it in the husk to microwaving it in saran wrap.  Here's the method that we use at home:

1. Husk the corn and remove all the silks

2. Fill a pot with water and add 1 Tbsp each of lemon juice and sugar

3. Place ears of corn in the water and bring the water to a full rolling boil for 2 minutes

4. Remove pot from heat and cover and let stand for 10 minutes

5.  Enjoy!

Oh yes, and by the way, I did buy that ear of corn at the farmer's market and had it for breakfast!