Thread: What's the deal with Watermelon

I'm about to give up on them. Haven't been able to find consistent good ones in a long time. Seems like every year they get worse. This isn't a new phenomena. The larger seed or seedless are horrible and for a while the little mini ones were nice but recently even they've lost it. Have we engineered the flavor right out of them? They are nice and firm and juicy but little taste.

Just cut one open and it had zero taste. Nothing, nada, I mean like chewing on water. It's too early here for local grown product and I know the early growing season down south has been bad but there was a time not too long ago when you could still get good watermelons from the southern US and farther south at this time of the year.

Is it just me?

Try sugarloaf watermelons, they coast more if you can get them, smaller that normal melons, the outer skin may have stripes or it may not, the meat is dark red and juicy, yummy!

Originally Posted by Brenngun

too early here for local grown product

There's a third of your problem.

Modern plants seem to be breed for everything but flavor and sweetness. Thats a sore spot with me. Fortunately heritage seed companies are doing a lot to save older varieties.

Have you been taught how to pick one? Basicly the blossom end should give slightly when pressed. And when thumped should sound hollow not a dull thump.

Jonathan

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Well here in South Carolina, our watermelons haven't come in yet. They need about 2 more weeks. We had a cold snap back in April that caused a slow down in just about all of plant growth. Our peaches, apples, and strawberries are running behind too.

As for the ones in the store right now not having any taste, well they are picking them green and then shipping them out. So they are not going to have any taste.

Forget about supermarket watermelons. Check out the smaller grocery stores run by ethnic minorities.. Round the corner we have a Turkish shop, they do great watermelons and other fruit and veg.

Originally Posted by Datsots

There's a third of your problem.

Modern plants seem to be breed for everything but flavor and sweetness. Thats a sore spot with me. Fortunately heritage seed companies are doing a lot to save older varieties.

Have you been taught how to pick one? Basicly the blossom end should give slightly when pressed. And when thumped should sound hollow not a dull thump.

Jonathan

Sent from my LGL34C using Tapatalk

I guess that's my biggest question and concern. Even thought they are not in season locally there was a time when we could find them in a grocery from the deep south that were still very good. I think at one time they used to air ship them so they could wait to pick when ripe. It used to cost a little more but was worth the extra. Now I think they've gone back to longer shipping processes and picking green. Anyway I'm just not going to buy another until I see local products. I was taught to follow these guidelines when selecting a watermelon. They have always been good indicators but I think I need to get a bit more particular about applying them faithfully and saying no even when I crave that sweet red juicy flesh.

1. Should be heavy for its size. The heavier, the juicier.
2. Look for the small "eye," should be extremely small. The end where the stem was cut is the "large eye." The small eye is directly on the other end. The smaller the eye is, the healthier the watermelon. Ideally, it should be around the size of a caper. This is one of the main picking standards. If it doesn't meet this criteria then don't buy it.
3. The colors should be high in contrast. The green should be very deep green, and the yellow splotch should be deep yellow. There is scientific basis on this if you look online, so I'll save you the explanation. A watermelon that does not have a very yellow splotch may have been picked too early, before it was ripe.
4. Tap it to hear the sound it creates. Ideally, you want a high pitched hollow reverberation. If the sound is dull, don't buy it.

Yup, hard to find good watermelon. My wife can pick a good watermelon by thumping them.

So one day she is at the market fussing over the watermelon display, and noticed a couple and the produce guy also eyeing her and kind of frowning at her melon inspecting process.

The couple asked her how to pick a good water melon, so she could not help herself, and broke out into her dissertation of color, size of the yellow spot, shape, sound and voodoo-nomics of watermelon picking, and noticed she had a few more folks, ear-hustling her conversation. So, then she said, “But, if you really want to know, just spin it”.

“What”, they said.

She told them to put the melon on the floor and spin it, the longer it spins the more water it has and the sweeter it is. She grabbed her melon and continued shopping.

A few minutes later she rounded the isle and said she saw 5 or 6 people kneeling on the floor, and the produce guy holding court, demonstrating the proper melon spinning technique…

Grow them yourself?

We used to have an old black guy with a very old Chevy pickup that would drive through our neighborhood in Perry Ga with truck loaded so full it was sitting on springs. He would holler out the window selling his mellons and he also had a kitchen knife and would cut you some to try. Good old dude.

My wife bought one this week. Its one of the worst tasting I've ever had.

When I was a kid I worked in a watermelon patch. The owners spread human hair clippings around the field to deter the coyotes. Apparently coyotes lile watermellons and can even puck the ripe ones out. True story.