It's well known in our family that watermelon is Art's favorite fruit. Whenever watermelon season starts up, Art will be first in line at the first watermelon sale choosing his fruit as carefully as he would selecting an automobile.
I love seeing him at the pen of watermelons, often discussing the best way to choose one with other watermelon aficionados.
I do believe his love of watermelons came quite naturally since his dad also loved watermelons.
Here is Art on the Big Island with his dad in 1972. His dad was the give-his-shirt-off-his-back-to-help-somebody sort of fellow. I'm sure he gave his watermelon secrets to anybody who might ask.
When our daughter, Tiffany was born, Art introduced her to watermelon quite early. She was a little under a year old here.
Then Jon was born he would learn to enjoy watermelon too.
Here's Tiffany a little older and still loving her watermelon with her surrogate uncle, auntie and baby, Jon.
So here are Art's secrets.
Drum roll....
1. Look for the yellow patch under the watermelon. If it's too white or mostly green, the fruit was probably picked too soon.
2. Look for a heavy (juicy) watermelon.
3. Try to find one with a green stem which may show that it's fresher.
Art once did an experiment where he bought two watermelons of the same size using his criteria. The only difference was that one had a hollow sound and the other a firm thud when tapped. As he expected, both were equally sweet. Only an engineer would go that far to test a theory or was it just an excuse to buy an extra melon?
After all this.... I would say you'll probably get a great watermelon 75% of the time.
And now... the sad, tragic part (as far as Art is concerned). When Tiffany grew up she somehow became allergic to all melons. She even went to an allergist. What the heck? Art could not believe it. A child of his allergic to watermelons???
Ah well..
So does anybody know how to choose a good cantaloupe?
I love seeing him at the pen of watermelons, often discussing the best way to choose one with other watermelon aficionados.
I do believe his love of watermelons came quite naturally since his dad also loved watermelons.
Here is Art on the Big Island with his dad in 1972. His dad was the give-his-shirt-off-his-back-to-help-somebody sort of fellow. I'm sure he gave his watermelon secrets to anybody who might ask.
When our daughter, Tiffany was born, Art introduced her to watermelon quite early. She was a little under a year old here.
Then Jon was born he would learn to enjoy watermelon too.
Here's Tiffany a little older and still loving her watermelon with her surrogate uncle, auntie and baby, Jon.
So here are Art's secrets.
Drum roll....
1. Look for the yellow patch under the watermelon. If it's too white or mostly green, the fruit was probably picked too soon.
2. Look for a heavy (juicy) watermelon.
3. Try to find one with a green stem which may show that it's fresher.
Art once did an experiment where he bought two watermelons of the same size using his criteria. The only difference was that one had a hollow sound and the other a firm thud when tapped. As he expected, both were equally sweet. Only an engineer would go that far to test a theory or was it just an excuse to buy an extra melon?
After all this.... I would say you'll probably get a great watermelon 75% of the time.
And now... the sad, tragic part (as far as Art is concerned). When Tiffany grew up she somehow became allergic to all melons. She even went to an allergist. What the heck? Art could not believe it. A child of his allergic to watermelons???
Ah well..
So does anybody know how to choose a good cantaloupe?
