We’ve all heard those standard recommendations about how to pick a great watermelon. If your experience has been anything like mine, I am more frequently disappointed than delighted with the results of my efforts.
Here’s what I’ve heard from “the experts”.
Could This Be The Perfect Watermelon??
- Look for that flattened yellow-brown area where it sat on the ground ripening. That is always a good sign.
- When you knock it, it should sound hollow. Don’t know about you, but they all sound hollow to me. One gentleman who proclaims to share a regular sized watermelon every night with his wife told me it should sound like “glass”. I don’t know for sure if I understood what that meant, but he picked me a watermelon that day, and it was by far the best one I’ve had all year.
- Same guy as above said the area around the stem should give a little with pressure.
This week, I was in the Hwy 2 and Salem Rd (Ajax) Walmart, sorting, tapping, pressing the stem areas on multiple watermelons until I found one that I thought met all the criteria, when a threesome of young men strode over to the watermelon bin beside me. Two stood off to the side while the 3rd dove head down into the bin, rapidly grabbing, holding and tapping watermelons. He would deftly pass each off to the other two who would either put it back into another area or hold onto to it, depending on some communication they had between them.
I watched, enthralled by the ease and mastery of the “watermelon sensei”. One of the “grasshoppers” turned to me and asked if I knew how to pick a good watermelon. I told him I had heard a lot, but was sure I had not mastered the skill. He informed me that his friend, who it was now apparent did not speak much English, had a well known talent for doing just that. I asked if I could check the watermelon he had deemed worth keeping up to that point, so I could hear what it sounded like. By now, he had rejected at least a dozen unworthy melons. I tapped and listened, and tapped and listened again. I can’t say that it stood out to me what made this watermelon so superior to the rest. I pulled out the watermelon I had chosen on my own, and asked what his friend thought of my choice. He took it and with a sideways nod, graciously implied it was “OK”.
I asked to confirm, “But yours is better, right?” He nodded his head in agreement. I returned their watermelon and was about to go to another bin to see if I could improve on my pick when one of the young men said, “Here, take this one”, offering me the only watermelon they had yet deemed worth holding on to. I declined, but he insisted, saying confidently, “He’ll find another one.”
I gratefully accepted his watermelon and left to check out.
After check out, I ran into them again. I thanked them once more for their assistance and told them I was looking forward to cutting this watermelon. He joked that he had just run out of Promo cards for me to leave him a review.
I am very much looking forward to cutting the watermelon; we are just finishing one up that was also disappointing. But what I am most grateful for was the encounter with the 3 young men, probably in their early 20’s, who stopped to share something they had, watermelon picking expertise, with a stranger… and made her day.
So here’s my biggest tip to choosing a great watermelon. When at the watermelon bin, hang out there long enough to encounter an expert, pick their brain and ask them to help you! I’ve found that’s the surest way.