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What a melon

Sweet and juicy fruit is easy to find when you know the signs.

By Brandon Scott (Contact)

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Sweet treat — Picking out the perfect watermelon this summer is as easy as using your five senses.

They’re sweet. They’re round. And almost everyone loves them — at least King Tut did.

When his tomb was unearthed in 1922, seeds of the fruit that some consider summer’s main squeeze were found on the ground near the Egyptian pharaoh’s coffin. Apparently, the watermelon was one of his favorite snacks.

Since then, the melon jazz musician Fats Waller once called the “Georgia Ham” has spread across the world and into our backyard. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Arkansas farmers grew 16 million pounds of watermelons in 2005. Farmers in Florida, the nation’s top producer, grew 819 million pounds of watermelons.

While nearly 3.8 billion pounds of watermelons are grown in the U.S. each year, most consumers are only concerned with the 10 to 20 pounds of it they will be taking to the family picnic or backyard barbecue. There are several methods for picking the sweetest and juiciest fruit, but after spending my youth helping my family grow 40 acres of watermelons in southern Arkansas, I have learned that using your five senses is the best way to go.

If it’s white, it ain’t ripe.

There are several ways to determine the ripeness of a watermelon, but the easiest is to simply look at it. On first glance, you should notice that between the stripes there is little contrast. This indicates that it is ripe for the pickin’.

If you turn the fruit over, the underbelly of the melon should be a yellowish color. If it’s white, that means the melon is immature and not fully ripe. This is a nearly fool-proof method of making sure you pick the sweetest watermelon of the bunch. But just because it’s yellow doesn’t mean it’s the one.

Go ahead. Touch it.

To get the juiciest watermelon, you want to pick the heaviest one. But beware, you can’t rely on weight to determine the ripeness of the fruit.

You also should run your hands over the melon rind to make sure its surface is smooth and firm. If the rind bends when you push on it, that usually means it’s mushy inside and overripe.

Thonk!

Now, that you’ve narrowed down the original field of melons, it’s time for the most popular method: the thump. You’ve thumped your fair share of melons and you’ve heard the thonk sound, but did you know that you’ve been doing it all wrong?

Instead of thumping the watermelon, you should be slapping it. This doesn’t mean you should knock the heck out of it, just hit it hard enough to determine whether it sounds hollow. The sound should resonate and have a deep low pitch. Also, the fruit should vibrate in your hand when you slap it — another indication that it’s mature.

It just makes scents.

By now, you should have narrowed it down to a few watermelons. The only thing left to do is use your nose. If it smells sweet, it probably is. You’d be surprised how many watermelons look good from the outside, but once you cut open the rind, it’s a whole different melon. Smelling it is just another way to ensure that you don’t spoil the party with a bad watermelon.

Dig in

Now, that you’ve picked the perfect watermelon, it’s time to enjoy it — and be healthy. A watermelon is crammed full of vitamins and minerals, like potassium, lycopene and vitamins A, B and C. And it’s 92 percent water, which is always good for you.

So, while you’re enjoying the pharaoh’s melon of choice this summer, feel free to eat as much as you want. That is unless it’s spiked, but that’s a whole different story.