its WATERMELON TIME !!!!

[cal1956]

as my wife will tell you, watermelon is my greatest food weakness its the one thing i can't resist !!!
i look forward to this time of year more than any other
the hard part is finding a perfectly ripe melon , i never could pick one by the thumping method , but the other night on TV i saw a show that had a watermelon grower in Calf . and he was explaining how to pick the perfect melon . he was standing in a huge field of melons as he was walking and talking , then reached down and picked a watermelon from amongst the 1000s in the field , he explained the the end where it was attached to the vine should NOT look like an apple instead it should be round and flush with the stem , explaining that IF it was like an apple the melon had not finished growing and thus not ripe ......in other words you don't want a melon that has an indention where the stem is
it makes sense !! then he cut open the melon and it looked perfect , he went on to explain that from the outer edge of melon to where it starts turning red should be approx. 3/4 inch ....
i am going to try his way of picking melons this summer and see if i have better luck

 

[cal1956]

the wife just tried this way of picking a melon at our local store and it worked !! she picked one of the best watermelons i have ate in years ...and this store is known for having unripe melons
the melon she picked is as sweet as candy

 

[kawboy]

I've been on a making watermelon pickles kick lately, so I only care about the rind. I will have to share this with the wife though, she likes the rest.☺

 

[Nodak21]

I’ve also heard picking a melon with a large yellower spot ( where it laid on the ground to ripen) and some of the brownish marks (where bees pollinated and made sweeter) are tricks to a good melon. I am not a connoisseur, that is just what I was told by a college professor many years ago. Lord knows college professors teach a lot of bs these days, so who knows if it is true.

 

[cal1956]

thats one that we have tried in the past but never had much luck picking them using that way , so far using the way the guy on TV said to do it we have only bought 2 melons and they were both VERY good ....stay tuned as we will be buying more and will let you know how his method holds up

 

[cal1956]

melon # 3
wife just walked in with melon # 3 and its another good one ,while its not "quite " as sweet as # 2 , its still very sweet
i have been doing business at this store for more than 20 years and in that time i have never gotten 3 ripe melons in a single year from them , let alone 3 in a row !!! so i'm going to go out on a limb and say that there must be something to this method of picking out watermelons

 

[Hockeydudde]

Just had watermelon last night. I picked it with this stem criteria in mind. It was good for a seedless, early season melon.
My watermelon tip is: if you have a nice slicing knife for brisket, try using it to cut watermelon if you hadn't. I have a very sharp 10" vintage rosewood handle victoinox breaking knife that's typically reserved for butchering or meat slicing. But I've pulled it out for the last few watermelons, and it is very satisfying to slice through watermelon with.

 

[cal1956]

watermelon # 4 well we have another winner melon # 4 couldn't be any better

 

[phatfoodz]

Great!