A Big One

[Jerry Thompson]

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39.6 lbs. and 22 inches long. I had to use age old secret planting techniques and a secret manta and plant the seed with my hind quarters lined up with the North Moon.

[Kent A Bathurst]

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[Mark Stutz]

Perfect for the holiday picnic. Nice size too. My grandfather raised watermelons. Back then it was not uncommon to get 60 or 70 pound melons. Seems like modern hybrids never get that big.

[Jerry Thompson]

Mark. I had one when I was a kid that was huge. The picture weighed 5 lbs. Well maybe 4.

[David Ragan]

After years of trying to figure out how to pick a good watermelon, here's my rules for picking one out:

You want deep green, that means good sun, and that typical flavor.

You want deep yellow where it sat on the ground, lots of pale rind is trumped by just a little really deep yellow rind.......that means it is sweet.

then the thump test-I forget hollow or not is good (it has been a couple years since my obsession passed). This would be how juicy it is.

One thing that is unpredictable----is whether the melon will have a mealy texture (bad). My understanding is that is from handlers chucking the melons around, concussive shock, as it were gives the mealy texture.

The above is my limited understanding through interviewing countless produce managers and watermelon officianados over about 2 years; and one particularly knowledgeable young man @ Publix.

Thoughts?

[Jerry Thompson]

In addition to the yellow belly there is a little bare green stem sticking off of the vine connected to the melon. When it turns brown all the way to the main stem all is supposed to be good.
The beast is in 40 pounds of ice and will be tested tomorrow. I think the belly could have had more yellow but time will tell.
There is its big brother that was next to it and I will do a belly check tomorrow.

[Mark Stutz]

The mealy ones are over ripe, according to my dad and grandfather. I used to be a lot better at picking them but have lost the skills. My Dad would walk thru a field, rub his hand over the top to feel it, role it over to look and feel the belly, then look at the curl (that little bare green stem). He would either cut it off the vine or roll it back over and move on. He was rarely wrong.

The most common melon of the day was the solid light green variety. They would often get to the 75 lb. range. I can remember when the striped variety became popular and then the round ones. People liked them because they could be more easily placed in the refrigerator. My dad hated them, though, because they were much more awkard to handle and load onto a truck.

[Jim Koepke]

Reminds me of my mother teaching me to pick out watermelons in the produce section.

She wouldn't buy watermelons until the price dropped to 3/$1 or 3¢ a pound.

That tells you how long ago it was that was.

jtk

[Mark Blatter]

When I was in high school, I worked for a summer at local produce wholesaler. We arrived at work at 5 a.m. and started out sorting potatoes. We would fill 5, 10, & 20 lb bags of them, and of course some of the guys to be funny, would set aside the really big spuds that came through. Then would grab 3 4 of the really big ones and fill a 5 or 10 lb bag with them.

Later in the morning we would start filling orders for the local stores, including watermelons. We always had 48' trailer with them in the yard. We would do the 5 - 10 person line and throw them into the delivery truck. We would always find a few that were cracked and during our breaks would pop open the melons and eat the hearts. The melons then were big, so at times the hearts would be 5 - 10 lbs all by themselves. That was good eating.

[Keith Outten]

We planted about ten watermelon plants in our garden this year. This is our first time planting watermelons so we went with the small round variety.
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