The Texanist: What’s the Best Way to Tell if a Watermelon Is Ripe?

Q:  When I was a child, my grandfather, a farmer in Ranger, instructed me on how to tell if a watermelon was ripe. He would hit the fruit with the side of his thumb and determine which ones had the deepest “thump.” Are there other techniques? My granddaughter can’t seem to master this skill because of her small hands.Marvin Cowden, Grand PrairieA: Given that Texas summers are barely bearable without watermelons, the ability to pick out a good one from the patch or the produce aisle is a useful skill for a granddaughter to have. The Texanist has often deployed the tried-and-true method of examining the color of the rind’s field spot, a.k.a. the place where the melon rested on the soil. A deep yellow…

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