Why YSK: These tips may help you pick a more ripe, juicier, sweeter watermelon.
This is all good info except for the gender thing. The round/long difference is just a growth habit. Watermelon plants (and other cucurbits like squash, zucchini, cantaloupe, etc) produce male and female flowers. Only the female flowers produce fruit and must be pollinated by a male flower to do so.
Was about to post this. There is a fact check here: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2022/04/26/fact-check-false-claim-male-and-female-watermelons/7366708001/ No such thing as male or female watermelons.
So if I'm getting the info correct: the uglier the melon, the better it will taste
Probably because beautiful melons had it easy, while the ugly melons had to work on their personality and talent to make up for the shunning they got from the melon community. Big Melon always presents attractive melons on media, making it harder for ugly melons.
#UglyMelonsTasteBetter
Awesome, thank you for the info! Always learn something new on lemmy.
This was bullshit the first 2000 times it was posted to reddit and it's still bullshit here.
Show us on the watermelon where the internet hurt you
<shows pale, tasteless spot>
I just roll my eyes at it now.
FYI there is no reliable way to tell if a watermelon is ripe after it is harvested. The most reliable indicator is the tendril on the node the peduncle is attached to. When it is fully dry, the fruit is ready.
Nah, I'm just going to continue doing what I've always done: tapping the watermelon to hear the sound and pretend that I know what I'm doing.
Even on lemmy people still aren’t bothering to fact check things. Disappointing.
Okay how can I tell which watermelon 🍉 is best for insertion ???
The markets where I buy are confident enough in their product that they cut the one you want to taste before you buy. I've never found a more reliable method than that.
I spent a season working in a packing house for watermelons. They'd come in by the crateload and we were allowed to just grab one to eat any time we wanted.
The trick I was taught, and which proved to be pretty reliable over the course of the season, was to feel the veins. (This is possibly what's being described as webbing here?) Watermelons aren't smooth, they have wide "veins" running top to bottom and you can feel them if you put your hand flat on the side of the melon. The bigger/poofier/wider the veins, the more ripe is it.
😳
I'll just remember "pick the most fucked up looking melon with patchy orange spots and ugly crisscross webbing". It's probably not going to make the photo reel but it'll taste good.
The ugly ones usually taste better, just check that the ugliness isn't caused by molds
in general I find this to be true with most fruits, the uglier the better. Those pretty shiny apples are shit.
This is horse shit
Where's the part where you slap it?
That's between you and the watermelon, leave me out of your racy play.
None of these visual methods are reliable as these things differ greatly amongst melon varieties. The easiest way is just to knock on the watermelon like you would a door, if it sounds hollow on the inside, then it's ripe.
The fuck is a "male" plant ovary?
When I see nonsense like this, I then distrust the entire YSK.
Testicles(!)
This infographic brought to you by someone selling gnarly watermelons.
On oranges, damage to the fruit (insect bites, cuts, etc) often cause the fruit to be sweeter in the area of the damage. So ugly fruit is often tastier.
Americans especially are sold shiny pretty consistent fruit. Ripe fruit is browning, wrinkled, lots of flaws. After a while you'll see some of those "flaws" as signs of tasty fruit.
I'm a produce manager for a grocery chain in the SE US. I tell people ALL of the time to pick out the ugliest cantaloupe/honeydew because it's typically going to be the sweetest/most ripe.
You'll have people shaking, rolling, knocking on melons trying to find "the good ones". It's pretty funny to watch people make their selections.
Why the green arrow for the "wrong" one, and the red arrow for the "right" one?
3 of the 4 items (gender doesn't matter, variety does) are generally correct.
Source: I'm a former watermelon "cutter" (the guy that goes out in the field first thing in the morning and cuts the good melons off the vine, and turns them belly side up so it's obvious to the field workers which melons to load up)
Also, with the whole thumping thing, most people just look silly doing as they don't know what they're doing. If you do thump, ones that have a higher pitched ping are still green, and that have a really dull/flat thud are over-ripe/too gritty/sugary. Also, weight should feel right, too light and it's overripe/rotten.
In general, any melon sold at the store should be good, just take one and stop trying to be a hero. At least the farmers I dealt with are pretty ethical, they aren't purposely shipping bad melons. It just takes experience of seeing/handling melons for a while to get the "picking one" correct. Most store I know of have a satisfaction guarantee anyway, take pictures if it's bad and when you go back get a refund if you're that concerned with it.
Finally now I know my melons gender, now I won't get in trouble on twitter
YSK: Nonbinary watermelons are even better than male and female watermelons, but they're pretty rare so they tend to command a high price
Morgan Freeman taught me to flick melons to determine the ripeness in Unleashed, and I have honed the skill to a masterful level. Get weird looks from strangers sometimes tho..
Never eat them, horrible watery bullshit and more effort than they're worth.
However, a very much appreciated post because my wife loves them and if this is true, I can become the Watermelon Wizard
Thanks, possibly:)
If you do become the Watermelon Wizard, will you be getting a cape? Or what do wizard wear... a mantle?
I was thinking about just painting my balls green tbh
She's going to love it.
There’s nothing better and more comforting than sitting down with a cold watermelon in the middle of summer.
Conversely, there’s nothing worse than sitting down with an unsweetened, tasteless garbage ball of a watermelon.
Saving this to increase my odds!
Round and brown. Got it.
I worked at a grocery store and the old timer who trained me in the produce section said that all you needed to find the best watermelon was learn how to give it a slap and if it sounds like a basketball that's a good watermelon. Learning the slap takes some practice but when you do it right, you'll know.
So basically..the uglier the sweeter. Got it!
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