Good Eating Monday: Picking A Good Watermelon!

I ran across this Pinterest tip on key things to look for when you're at the grocery, trying to pick a watermelon. The recommendations come from farmers.

#1: Look for a creamy-colored or even a gold-colored field patch. This indicates melon was in the field the longest, so it has the best chance of being perfectly ripe.

#2: Look for Webbing: 

Webbing is the scratchy looking marks, but these are actually produced by the number of times a bee touches the melon flower.
More webbing = more bee touches = sweeter melon.

#3: Look for a Dry Brown Stem:

If a melon still has a stem on it or "tail" as it's called, make sure it's dried and brown. (Not all melons have one) If a stem appears greenish still, it means the melon was picked too early to be it's best ripeness.

#4: Sweet or Watery?

Apparently, watermelons have genders and a "girl" melon is sweeter, while a "boy" melon is more waterly.

However, my Hubby and I often stand at the seedless watermelon box in the grocery store, looking over melons that seem to look all pretty much the same shape and size, debating which might be a girl or boy. I think they're actually pre-sorted by shape and size, so this tip is pretty hard to apply.

The picture also just looks like seedless melons, so I'm not sure how one tells male and female seeded melons apart.

But you can go ahead and give this tip a whirl!

#5: Size

The recommendation is don't go for the biggest. The best melons are those that are average sized.

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Even with all these tips, we still mixed results in our watermelon buying. Of the several we've purchased this season, only 2 were perfectly sweet and just right.

So good luck in your watermelon picking!

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If you try these tips or have any others, please share in the comments! We'd like to hear!