Community Chat

[wismiss]

I saw this on TV a while ago and it is the best way to pick out a watermelon.

Look at the "yellow" spot on the watermelon.  That spot is the where the melon laid in the field.  The bigger the spot, the riper the melon.  It means that the melon ripened in the field longer than a melon with a little yellow spot.  

I've tried knocking, pushing the stem end, smelling, etc., but this tip is the one that works the best and is very consistent.

[deepwaterdotter]

I saw this tip on the "Very Vera" cooking show this weekend.

[amyb]

I learned that last year from my local farm market. It seems to work.

Also, this year, also from my farm market...knock on it...should sound hollow. Not sure why...but that's what she said.

This year also...our local farm markets had native (to CT) very dark, solid green, (no stripes), seedless watermelons...SWEETEST watermelon I've ever had.

I LOVE watermelon. I consider it one of my 3 favorite "food groups"...pasta, chocolate, watermelon. 😉🍉🍝🍫

[Teddie]

Love watermelon. Too bad the season is so short. 

My first daughter was born in October and I craved watermelon and ate a lot of it during that summer. 

[Carmie]

This is how I choose too, but I still knock. If it sounds too hollow, I pass.  They can be overripe and grainy.  I pick out one with a yellow belly that thumps.

The watermelons this year have been delicious.

[itsmagic]

Thanks for the tip. I hadn’t heard of that before.  Knocking on it and pushing in the stem doesn’t always work for me. 

[amyb]

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@Teddie wrote:

Love watermelon. Too bad the season is so short. 

My first daughter was born in October and I craved watermelon and ate a lot of it during that summer. 

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So funny you said this. I truly believe it's why I absolutely love it (season IS much too short, I'm sad when it comes to an end)...anyway...I was born in July, following a heat wave where mom said ALL she ate all week was watermelon! Got into my bloodstream and DNA, I'm convinced! 😂🍉

[Teddie]

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@amyb wrote:

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@Teddie wrote:

Love watermelon. Too bad the season is so short. 

My first daughter was born in October and I craved watermelon and ate a lot of it during that summer. 

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So funny you said this. I truly believe it's why I absolutely love it (season IS much too short, I'm sad when it comes to an end)...anyway...I was born in July, following a heat wave where mom said ALL she ate all week was watermelon! Got into my bloodstream and DNA, I'm convinced! 😂🍉

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So cute, @amyb ! Love that! 🙂

[chickenbutt]

I've heard that.  I also love watermelon.

What I do that has worked out pretty well over the years is not the knocking thing but a full open-hand thing.  It's hard to explain, but I hit the watermelon (not hard!) with an open, sort of cupped, hand.  If it's a good one it will make a sort of hollow sound.  If not it just goes *thud*.   

[just bee]

When I was ten years old we moved from Chicago to Prescott, Arizona.  I was standing in front of an enormous bin of melons when an older gentleman approached and asked me if I knew how to choose a good melon.

Well, if I did I wouldn't have been standing there for so long.

He explained that most people don't want a melon with marks on it.  But those marks mean that insects have been gnawing on the rind.  Insects know their melons.

Don't know if any of this is true, but whenever I look at melons I think about his advice and choose the melon that a bug would have chosen.