This sure FEELS like a dumb question...

When something blighty gets a plant, a virus or fungus or something ending in "wilt" if you know what I mean, but the plant is still producing fruits that look perfectly good, are the fruits OK to eat? Or are they infected with something that can make you sick? I pulled up a cucumber that was getting really bad with those yellowy orangey spots (didn't want it to spread) and there were three very pretty cukes on the vine. Salad? Or compost? Or trash bin?

Thanks.

I have never heard of anyone getting sick from eating fruit that looks normal from a plant with early blight, septoria leaf spot, bacterial spot, bacterial speck, etc.

I cut the BER spot off my tomatoes all season long, and ate the good parts -- I'm still around to tell you about it....

That's what I hoped! Salad tonight!

Thanks.

I'd have been dead years ago if that were true. Enjoy your salad!

Me too. I cut off the bad parts and eat the rest. If I didn't, I don't think I would get much out of my garden that I share with the grasshoppers, bunnies, deer, and the miscellaneous bacterial or viral problems that attack my tomatoes and potatoes.

Oh, and if you get that fuzzy nasty looking smut on your corn, start eating from the other end. ^_^

Or as one customer told another last weekend, "Don't husk that corn, it dries out, just whack the end off, those worms don't eat much!"

LOL! And by the way, that's not a dumb question, that is a great question! You are in good company with me with a question like that. =) Just ask out loud, no apologies, that's my motto.

Love the comment about the corn. I'm always delighted to find a worm in the corn silks. That says to me that the corn wasn't sprayed with all manner of nasty insecticides. As Sue said, just whack off that end and proceed as usual.

JoanJ wrote;"Oh, and if you get that fuzzy nasty looking smut on your corn, start eating from the other end. "

Or, you can prepare it as a delicacy, and wow (?) your dinner guests. Huitlcoche was prepared on Iron Chef America recently for those who care :)

"Notes on Huitlacoche
Corn smut must be becoming popular! The week that last months Mycophagist article on Ustilago maydis was in the mail Narsai David devoted one of his short programs about it on radio station KCBS. He mentioned that some farmers in the United States are attempting to grow corn with large corn smut infestations because the fungus is much more valuable than the corn it parasitizes!

In a note from Larry Stickney, he mentioned that he has seen Huitlacoche infested corn at the Monterey Market in Berkeley. Being sold at corn prices, not fungus prices--quite a find for the initiated! Larry also mentioned that there is another edible smut, Ustilago esculenta, which grows on rice and is considered a great taste treat in central China, where it is sold in the markets. According to Professor Mo-Mei Chen, it grows more on the plant stalk than the seed itself and is sweet and tender.

*grin*.

Hmmmmm... don't know what to say about that. I'm adventurous enough, and I do love mushrooms, which are a fungus... just have a problem with cooking up a mess of corn smut, somehow...

And thank you, CharityS -- I occasionally find myself in a teaching situation, and the first thing I tell people is that if YOU want to know something, chances are five other people there want to know the same thing but are embarrassed to ask, so you're doing people a favor by asking!

Corn smut is becoming a big business. If ya have some smutty corn take it to the market. it sells like hot cakes. Looks nasty but tastes really good.

One of those close your eyes and don't peek when ya take them foirst few bites type of meal.

First thing, find another name for it besides "smut"

LOL, LTilton! :)

French for fungus is moisissure.

hmmm...braised moisissure in a port wine reduction, sounds tres elegant, oui?

(besides, the French came up with escargot, and convinced the world that snails were a delicacy, why not corn smut)

I think something like "truffe de mais" would confer the necessary cachet.

Oui, je suis d'accord.

Hummmmmmmmmm I like that truffle de mais, sounds elegant and you ould probably order it and eat it and not say what is it first. : )

It looks really elegant when you put the diaresis over the "i" in "mais"

" if YOU want to know something, chances are five other people there want to know the same thing "

Grin. Ain't it the truth. I can't tell you how many times I've sidled over to someone getting a "lesson". Usually something that I hadn't thought of asking, or had thought would make me just too stupid for words. Last week I was able to help, too. A vendor at the Farmers market was selling green tomatos. I asked if they were ripe. She looked at me as if I were an idiot, and said, "no, they're green". (This is the vendor I had previously asked what kind her yellow tomatoes were, and was told "yellow".). This time she knew the variety, "Granny Smith", do you think that might have been a clue? Another customer, next to me, asked me if these were the kind she'd just read about that never did turn red, and were ripe when green. I asked to hold a tomato, and yup, it was ripe. Bought it, and shared it with the other customer, and it was wonderful, great balance. She bought several more, and trotted off to tell her husband. As I left i saw the vendor holding and examining one of the tomatoes as if deciding whether to try it, or not......:)
giggle

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of the farmer's market myself, but it does make me laugh sometimes--they're getting a lot of hot press as the place to go when you want to talk to people who know about the food they're selling (as compared to the grocery store clerk who can often barely differentiate between lettuce and squash). Then you come across someone like this... :) Thanks for the story, catmad!

You're welcome, I enjoyed it :).
She was not a regular, and I have a feeling she was a fill-in for the grower. That spot usually has a nice young man, very laid back, but knows his stuff. He always throws in extras, too....:)