Do melons leave you muddled at the supermarket? Never fear: Compare them using these easy criteria.
Picking out a watermelon at the grocery store was always a semi-anxiety plagued experience for me when I didn’t know what I was looking for.
If you pick a bad one, you’re stuck with 15-20 whopping pounds of watermelon terribleness. And then your options are to either force yourself to eat this yucky watermelon or throw it away…and both are less than desirable options. Never fear: Compare them using these easy criteria.
#Knock on It with Your Knuckles
Your knuckles should bounce off the melon, and the surface should be pretty hard/firm. You will get a dull thud if the flesh is soft, which indicates it’s starting to spoil.
#Look for the Sugar Spots and Pollination Points
If you see black spots on the melon, this is where sugar is seeping out and indicates a sweet melon. Also, if you see dots in a line (not a scratch), these are pollination points, and the more of them the better.
#Avoid shiny
The one thing to always remember when learning how to pick a watermelon is to avoid shiny melons. That usually means they’re not ripe. The perfect watermelon will have a rind with a dark green color, and its skin will be dull in appearance.
#Look for a yellow circle
Now, turn the watermelon over. The bottom of the melon should have a creamy yellow spot where it sat on the ground and ripened in the sun. And the darker that spot is, the better the melon will taste. A white or nonexistent spot means it was picked from the vine before it had time to fully ripen.
#Check the Little Curling Tendril Located Where the Watermelon Stem Joins the Main Vine
This is another tip for checking ripe watermelons in the garden. Right where the stem to your melon joins the main vine, there should be a little curling tendril of vine. If the tendril is still green and springy, the melon is still growing.
If you pick a bad one, you’re stuck with 15-20 whopping pounds of watermelon terribleness. And then your options are to either force yourself to eat this yucky watermelon or throw it away…and both are less than desirable options. Never fear: Compare them using these easy criteria.
#Knock on It with Your Knuckles
Your knuckles should bounce off the melon, and the surface should be pretty hard/firm. You will get a dull thud if the flesh is soft, which indicates it’s starting to spoil.
#Look for the Sugar Spots and Pollination Points
If you see black spots on the melon, this is where sugar is seeping out and indicates a sweet melon. Also, if you see dots in a line (not a scratch), these are pollination points, and the more of them the better.
#Avoid shiny
The one thing to always remember when learning how to pick a watermelon is to avoid shiny melons. That usually means they’re not ripe. The perfect watermelon will have a rind with a dark green color, and its skin will be dull in appearance.
#Look for a yellow circle
Now, turn the watermelon over. The bottom of the melon should have a creamy yellow spot where it sat on the ground and ripened in the sun. And the darker that spot is, the better the melon will taste. A white or nonexistent spot means it was picked from the vine before it had time to fully ripen.
#Check the Little Curling Tendril Located Where the Watermelon Stem Joins the Main Vine
This is another tip for checking ripe watermelons in the garden. Right where the stem to your melon joins the main vine, there should be a little curling tendril of vine. If the tendril is still green and springy, the melon is still growing.