Image:http://www.worldcommunitycookbook.org/season/guide/corn.htmlAnother encounter in the continuing adventures of proper produce-buying etiquette. (A follow-up to this this post, about peaches.)I’ve been seeing these signs at many, if not most farm stands recently: Do Not Open the Corn. Black marker on cardboard. Often in all caps. Sometimes there are exclamation points.I like to open my ears before I take them home: I like to know that the corn looks good, and that the top of the ear hasn’t already gone to mush. So for the past few weeks, with prices as high as 75 cents an ear, I’ve simply walked by these signs, a little miffed. If the corn is expensive, and I can’t even look at it to know I want to take it home, why bother? Or that was my thinking.But I really like corn, and the prices have gone down a little as the season continues, so I decided that I wouldn’t be so self-righteous about my need to get a look inside the husk. I asked why not open the corn? A farmer at yesterday’s Broadway Farmers Market explained.1. The sugars turn to starch as soon as you open the ear. The corn will begin to get mealy, and will soon spoil.2. Some people like large kernels, and others like small ones, so the opened ears will sit rejected, even though the previous shopper might simply have different taste than you do. What to do? Feel your way along the ear. Feel for a fat ear of corn, and for large kernels — or small, if that’s what you like.