The secret to picking out a great watermelon.

[adoremybabe]

Once again I ended up buying a bum watermelon. Does anyone have a fail safe tip for picking out the perfect or near perfect watermelon?

[Triciabn]

Martha stewarts tip has been pretty safe and even my husband gets it.

Okaay you are standing in front of all the watermellons.
Size them up..."I bet that one will be *this* heavy"
Pick it up...is it heavier or lighter then you imagined?
*Lighter?=bad
*About right?=okay but probably could use a few days.
*Little heavier then you anticipated?= Perfect.
*Really heavy= ick

Do this to 4-5 watermellons at a time... and pick out the one that was a little heavier then you imagined.
Like I said....even my husband brings home good watermellons these days!
go buy some mellons.
Tricia

[CHoney]

I'm not sure if this really works, but I pick a heavy melon and knock on it and buy the one that sounds the best! Usually a good thunking hollow sound means its sweet...if that makes sense. I probably just sound crazy...and look crazy while knocking on the melon, but usually it works!

[tanyalynn]

Alton Brown said that the ground spot on the bottom should be yellow. Sometimes they're sorta white-ish, but yellow is what you want, plus obvious stuff like no blemishes, soft spots, that kind of thing. But it's hard for me to guarantee it, it's only DH and the kids who like watermelon, yet I am the purchaser.

[RunnerDuck]

Originally Posted by CHoney

I'm not sure if this really works, but I pick a heavy melon and knock on it and buy the one that sounds the best! Usually a good thunking hollow sound means its sweet...if that makes sense. I probably just sound crazy...and look crazy while knocking on the melon, but usually it works!

I'm a thunker, too.

I'm also a Laura Ingalls Wilder nut. There's a passage in Farmer Boy where the boys go out to pick a melon and it was like "It was easy to pick a ripe melon. If it sounded ripe, it WAS ripe. The problem was, when Almanzo thought a melon sounded ripe, Royal thought it didn't, and when Royal thought the melon sounded ripe, Almanzo didn't." So they ended up dragging like 5 melons home since they couldn't agree...

I'm a thunker. I can't say what I am thunking for but I can usually pick a good one.

Oh, I also won't buy them if the season feels wrong. Like right now I think we're just getting into good melon season. DH brought a very mediocre melon home a month or so ago.

[ChocolateNummies]

I get one that's heavy for it's size and has both ends pretty even in size. If one side is significantly smaller than the other, it's usually not ripe. I like getting one with a yellow/white ground side but have gotten enough good ones without that feature that I'm not sure how much it matters. Being in season is also important as a pp said. Around here if it's in season it's pretty hard to pick a bad one.

[lil_earthmomma]

My mom always thumps them while holding them like a baby in the crook of her arm. She says that if when you thunk it your elbow feels it (the vibrations) it's perfect. She has never brought home a bad mellon.

[nerdymom]

thumping, weight and season = never a bad melon. The weight one is REALLY good for a lot of fruits, like citrus. Also for soft skinned fruits, smell, it should smell like what it is. No smell? No good.

[dkenagy]

This might sound crazy, but I learned this from my grandfather who was "throwing" watermelons 12 hours a day before he hit double digits, and it works every time.

First, look for a melon that is round and has nice markings, few blemishes. The ground spot on the under side should be yellow. You need a dry straw, like from a real straw broom.
With the watermelon lying on its ground spot, lay the straw down on top of the watermelon with the ends of the straw pointing towards the ends on the watermelon and let it go. If the straw turns perpendicular to the melon (pointing toward the sides), then the melon is ripe. I know it sounds strange and I'm sure I've gotten some looks during my "city" years, laying straws on melons in the big grocery stores, but I've never cut open an under-ripe watermelon when I've used this little trick!! I still use it now to know when it's time to harvest my watermelons.

[Chicky2]

Originally Posted by RunnerDuck

I'm a thunker, too.

I'm also a Laura Ingalls Wilder nut. There's a passage in Farmer Boy where the boys go out to pick a melon and it was like "It was easy to pick a ripe melon. If it sounded ripe, it WAS ripe. The problem was, when Almanzo thought a melon sounded ripe, Royal thought it didn't, and when Royal thought the melon sounded ripe, Almanzo didn't." So they ended up dragging like 5 melons home since they couldn't agree...

I *just* read this to my son a couple of nights ago.

[mchammer38]

Picking a great watermelon

I was at a farmer's market a few years ago and asked a farmer to help me pick a good watermelon. The man was very helpful and explained how to pick a great melon. I have been following the tip and haven't had much touble picking a good watermelon;

1. Look for the yellow spot on the bottom. That means it was vine rippened and wasn't picked early for market.

2. Look for blemishes that have a tar looking substance coming out. I know that sounds gross but thats the sugar coming out of the melon meaning it has reached perfect ripeness. Most of the time I see it at the end from where the melon was picked off the vine or in one of the blemish cracks on the melon. Trust me this one tip is almost fail proof to picking a great melon.

3. The others are the normal checks like thumping and making sure it is slighly heavy. defining if it's ripe and not over ripe.

Hope that helps and let me know if it worked for you.

[KristyDi]

Originally Posted by TanyaLopez

Alton Brown said that the ground spot on the bottom should be yellow. Sometimes they're sorta white-ish, but yellow is what you want, plus obvious stuff like no blemishes, soft spots, that kind of thing. But it's hard for me to guarantee it, it's only DH and the kids who like watermelon, yet I am the purchaser.

: I have had good luck picking melons since I learned this.