In Season: Watermelon
We’re getting to the time of year when watermelon can go either way — a great burst of sweet juice or something that tastes vaguely of fruit water. Still, it’s the right time to dive in while you’ve got a better shot at the former than the latter, because as long as there is watermelon on the table, you can hang on to summer.
Picking watermelon can be tricky. You want to avoid bruises and dents, the same as if you were picking apples or tomatoes. A decent tip-off for ripeness involves the stripes. If the yellow stripes ring the melon, it’s not quite ripe. But if the base is yellow or lighter in color, it should be good to go home with you.
Watermelon brings out some of the oddest behavior in the grocery store because of the prevailing wisdom that you can discover if it’s ripe by thumping the side:
“True thump experts say that a perfectly ripe watermelon will ‘thump’ and the thump will be about a b-flat note,” according to watermelonthump.com.
