NATIONAL WATERMELON DAY

August 3 is NATIONAL WATERMELON DAY!

Every day should be Watermelon Day for me:  The way I feel about watermelon is IMMORAL as I lust after them.  Along with strawberries and sweet corn, watermelon makes summer sheer heaven for me.

Don't you just love Mark Twain's quote:  "When one has tasted watermelon, he knows what angels eat."?

This year I cannot believe my good luck--and it is sheer luck--in having selected four mellifluous watermelons.  See my article below about testing melons:

                                         HOW TO TEST MELONS FOR RIPENESS

Liz Vaccariello from Prevention Magazine provides these tips:

1. GIVE A QUICK SNIFF
Honeydews especially should have an aroma like fragrant flowers. If they don't, the melons can be set on the counter for days to ripen.

2. GIVE THEM A SHAKE
When shaking a honeydew or cantaloupe, pay attention to see if the seeds are loose; if the seeds feel loose, it is ripe.

3. GIVE THEM A SQUEEZE
When a melon is squeezed on the side, it should not be hard. It should give a little, but not be too "squeezable".

4. GIVE THEM A QUICK THUMP
With watermelons, when thumped, if it sounds like a dull thud, it is probably a nice, juicy melon.

We were in Florida last year and we were behind a truck with a sign: "Watermelons $3.00". The truck pulled into a gas station and we followed. I asked the man if he had grown the melons and he said, "Yes, ma'am. I've been raising watermelons since I was 9 years old! " I said, "Please tell me how to tell if they're ripe."

He pointed to one and asked, "You see that yellow belly?" I said that I did. He told me that meant it'd been laying on the ground and was ripe. He continued, "I guarantee this will be the best melon you've ever tasted!" His "guarantee' was easy to offer, I thought, because he would probably never see me again!

I answered, "Well, I AM a watermelon connoisseur!" He said, "Well, since you're a great consumer, I'll give this to you for $2.50." [He thought that I had said "consumer" rather than "connoisseur"!]

I'm sorry to report that that yellow-belly wasn't worth the $2.50 and that in the future I would return to SNIFFING, SHAKING, SQUEEZING, and THUMPING!