Don’t you just love watermelon season? Goodness I do and we make all sorts of things with watermelon around here. The one thing that is always a bummer is when you are dreaming of that perfect red, delicious, ripe watermelon and come home to find you picked one that is mealy or white and lacking in flavor.
So I thought I’d do a little research and find some tips to help determine what to look for at the grocery store so you always come home with a delicious melon.
Top tips for picking a perfect watermelon:
- Look for a yellowish spot on the bottom of the watermelon. This indicates that it sat on the ground and ripened in the sun instead of being picked early. You don’t want it to be white on the bottom but white is better than no patch at all.
- Thump the watermelon and if it sounds hollow than it should be a good one. (as opposed to sounding solid if not ripe). Some say this does not matter but I have always used this method and never bought a bad watermelon!
- You want to pick a watermelon that is bright and not dull in appearance.
- It’s best to choose a watermelon that is uniform in shape. Also, free of cuts and abnormalities.Bumps or odd curves could indicate it was grown with irregular runs of water.
- It should be heavy for it’s size.
- And of course, it’s best to buy in season.
And if you have other little tricks that you use please be sure to share below!
And once you do get that watermelon home, be sure to rinse the rind under cold water to remove any dirt. (This can get on your knife as you cut through the rind.) It is best to store an uncut watermelon in a cool, dark place. If you need to store it for more then a few days you might want to store it in the fridge instead.
And once you cut you can either wrap tightly with saran wrap or put it in an airtight container in the fridge. It is best to eat right away though :).
Here are a few other things you might like:
Watermelon Lollipops— so fun for kids and look how cute for 4th of July!
Watermelon Sorbet– goodness this is delicious!
And here is your Dirty Dozen list for 2014-– all the produce items that are worth getting in organic plus the produce with the least amount of pesticide residue that you can buy conventional.
deeanna says
I work in produce. I agree with the picking techniques above but also always choose a watermelon with the jagged lines and or brown sap spot if possible. This is suppose to indicate a sugar spot and will be sweet on the inside. Firm never soft as this indicates over ripe or old.
Alla says
Also check for wide stipes. Thick stripes indicate that it’s ripe as opposed to thin stripes 🙂
Kayla says
I always look for bee stings! Always sweet
K. says
This sounds very accurate. The one thing that I would add is that we look for melons with a dry (as opposed to green) stem.
Ubsaved2 says
Also, if you see a line of weird little marks on the top or sides of the melon, that means it’s extra sweet. Those marks are from bees sucking the sweetness out of it. Don’t mistake scuff marks on the bottom for these. They are very specific marks. If you investigate you will see these marks on some melons and not others. If it is in the yellow spot, that is not what I’m talking about.
Also, once you cut your melon, if you cut it up and put it in a bowl, place a lid to another bowl in the bottom of the bowl facing down to leave room for the juice to go under the melon so it doesn’t sit in the juice. Your melon will taste better longer. Every time you get it out drain the excess liquid off and use it in your smoothies for sweetness.
Happy tasting!