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Has anyone else noticed it is difficult to find a sweet watermelon?
25 years ago you could pick one out at the grocery store and take it home, cut it up and will taste heavenly. Granted it had a lot of the black seeds. But that was a small inconvenience (at least to me) for sweet watermelon.
I would cut it up, remove as many seeds as I had the patience to, them put it in the food processor and puree it. I'd have a great, naturally sweet drink on hot days.
I have found that most of the disappointing experiences I have had with fruit are due to two factors:
1. Buying fruit out of season, and
2. Buying fruit that has traveled far from its origin.
Sometimes you just can't help this (for instance, bananas and pineapple are going to have to travel to get to where I live), but for the most part, buying fruit that is IN SEASON and GROWN LOCALLY, as much as possible, will vastly improve the quality of what you get. Right now, for instance, June 1, is not the time for ripe watermelon anywhere near here. Strawberries and blueberries are excellent right now, and cherries and other stone fruits are coming in (I live in California). I can wait for watermelon and other melons, as well as grapes, until it gets hotter and they get sweeter.
You can also look for seeded rather than seedless watermelons; many people find seeded melons tastier although they are getting harder to find.
25 yrs ago we had 1000 seeds in a watermelon and we all were spitting out seeds
I think the watermelon season is longer than it use to be and overall we are eating more
last week ...we bought a seedless watermelon for 4.99
im knocking on most all of them in the bin to get a hollow sounding one.....ive heard from many this is a sign they are ripe...and look for a large white spot....as it has been sitting for a while..
and yes it was red and sweet which was a pleasant surprise this early in the season..
before I realized how many carbs and sugars are in watermelon I was eating half a one every day ...
Yeah, I've noticed its hard to find a good one. It all depends on where the melons come from. The best ones I have ever had were grown in Posey County Indiana. They were always sweet and CHEAP! We used to get the humongous ones directly from the farmer for like 2 bucks.
I've always had a hard time finding a sweet one....my husband always finds them because he used to work in the watermelon fields when he was a teenager.
He says to look for a deep yellow color at the field spot. If there's a white field spot, or no field spot at all, it likely won't be good. He also checks to see how heavy it is.
I did a google search to see if there was anything new that I needed to do to look for and I saw this...
"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."
I'm going to try this the next time I buy a melon.
Just to add to this - how long will an uncut watermelon keep? I have no clue if the one I bought a week or so is even any good but........ how do you know when it's bad?
Just to add to this - how long will an uncut watermelon keep? I have no clue if the one I bought a week or so is even any good but........ how do you know when it's bad?
Something I do to make mine last longer than normal is cut it all out of the rind, cut it in cubes and put it in gallon zip lock bags. As far as just cutting it and putting it in the fridge, you'll know when it starts shriveling up a little
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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A week would be pushing it, especially if it is sweet, because it’s more ripe. The best are from the farmer’s market, later in summer, in our case picked that morning from farms in the Yakima Valley. Those imported from Mexico and South America may not have been totally ripe when picked, and may still not be when you buy at the supermarket. They do not continue to ripen after picking, so the sugars have not developed.
25 yrs ago we had 1000 seeds in a watermelon and we all were spitting out seeds
I think the watermelon season is longer than it use to be and overall we are eating more
last week ...we bought a seedless watermelon for 4.99
im knocking on most all of them in the bin to get a hollow sounding one.....ive heard from many this is a sign they are ripe...and look for a large white spot....as it has been sitting for a while..
and yes it was red and sweet which was a pleasant surprise this early in the season..
before I realized how many carbs and sugars are in watermelon I was eating half a one every day ...
Since watermelon tends to get eaten in large pieces, the amount of carbohydrates can be very high.
I grew a couple of watermelons in San Jose one summer and until I ate those, I never knew watermelon could taste so good. But then, the same thing happened when I ate homegrown cherry tomatoes, corn, and strawberries.
I think this is the reason kids don't eat vegetables. They taste like crap if they come from a grocery store. I've never found a sweet watermelon in any store since. Nor have I ever found any other fruit that tasted good coming from a store. I had some blueberries I got at a Farmers Market once and gave them to a friend. Her remark was that it was like eating a totally different fruit.
This is why I so seldom buy any fruits and vegetables from any grocery store. I just wish our Farmers Markets weren't so expensive and carried more variety.
I noticed at the local grocery store, they start selling watermelons in early May from Guatemala. You can follow them ripening as next is Honduras, then Mexico, then Texas, then California, and finally the best come locally from Rocky Ford, CO. I do not start buying watermelon until mid-season from Mexico.
But the best watermelon I have ever had, and it was always consistent in quality, was when we lived in South Korea. From farm to market in an hour, all field ripened.
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