- 1 week ago
A ripe watermelon should be sweet, juicy, and deep red, not pale and disappointing, and this guide shows how to choose one with confidence every time. Elias explains three plain signs to look for before you buy: a creamy yellow field spot, a brown dried blossom end, and a deep hollow sound when tapped. He also shares a few extra checks from years of growing and selling melons, including heft, a dull rind, brown webbing, and a dried tendril.
After the picking lesson, he demonstrates an easy old-fashioned way to cut a watermelon into clean cubes. You’ll see how to trim the ends, shave off the rind safely with a long knife, and slice the fruit into neat bite-sized pieces for snacking, fruit salad, parties, or the fridge. It’s a practical kitchen tutorial for summer produce, watermelon cutting, and simple food prep.
Created for anyone searching for how to pick a sweet watermelon, how to tell if a watermelon is ripe, and how to cut watermelon into cubes. This watermelon tips and kitchen skills video is useful for summer recipes, fruit prep, and easy food storage, with clear guidance for choosing a juicy melon at the market or roadside stand.
After the picking lesson, he demonstrates an easy old-fashioned way to cut a watermelon into clean cubes. You’ll see how to trim the ends, shave off the rind safely with a long knife, and slice the fruit into neat bite-sized pieces for snacking, fruit salad, parties, or the fridge. It’s a practical kitchen tutorial for summer produce, watermelon cutting, and simple food prep.
Created for anyone searching for how to pick a sweet watermelon, how to tell if a watermelon is ripe, and how to cut watermelon into cubes. This watermelon tips and kitchen skills video is useful for summer recipes, fruit prep, and easy food storage, with clear guidance for choosing a juicy melon at the market or roadside stand.
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00:00There is nothing so disappointing on a hot summer day as carrying home a big, fine-looking watermelon,
00:07cutting into it all eager, and finding it pale and pithy and near tasteless inside,
00:13all that promise and no sweetness.
00:16And there is nothing so fine as cutting one open to find it deep red and dripping and sweet clear
00:24through.
00:25And here is the thing.
00:26The difference between the two is not luck.
00:30And it is not the price, and it is certainly not the thumping folks do that tells them nothing.
00:35The whole secret of picking a sweet, ripe melon every single time is in three plain signs the outside of
00:44the melon shows you,
00:46signs the old market folk have read for generations.
00:50And once I show them to you, you will never again bring home a bad one.
00:54Today I will give you those three signs, and then I will show you the easy old way to cut
01:01a watermelon down into clean, sweet cubes with no mess and no waste.
01:07I am Elias, and I have grown watermelons on this Lancaster County ground and sold them at the stand many
01:15a summer.
01:15So I have picked and sorted a great many melons in my time, and I can tell you a ripe
01:22one from a green one at a glance by these signs.
01:25They are no secret, really, just the plain old knowing that folks have lost, and I am glad to hand
01:32it back to you.
01:33Quick word before I go further.
01:36The old methods my family uses.
01:39There is more of it than fits in any one video.
01:42I gathered the whole of it into a book at EliasYoder.com.
01:47The book is the long version.
01:50If you want it, it is there.
01:52I will not mention it again.
01:53My grandfather taught me these signs when I was a boy, at the melon patch and at the roadside stand
02:00where we sold them.
02:02He could walk down a whole wagon load and pick the sweetest one in it without cutting a single one
02:08open,
02:08and it seemed like magic to me until he showed me he was only reading what every melon plainly tells.
02:16Look here, Elias, he would say, turning one over.
02:19This one lay long in the sun and ripened full, and this one they pulled green, and see how each
02:26one shows it.
02:27He had no scale and no label, only his eyes and his knuckle and the knowing.
02:33That is the knowing I want to hand you now, the same three signs he taught me at that stand.
02:39So, here are the three signs, and you look for all three together, for anyone alone can fool you, but
02:47the three together never will.
02:50The first sign is the field spot, that pale patch on the side of the melon where it sat on
02:55the ground as it grew.
02:57Every watermelon has one, for it lay on its side in the field, and that side never saw the sun.
03:04And the color of that spot tells you a great deal.
03:07On a ripe melon, that field spot is a rich, creamy yellow, a good, deep, buttery yellow,
03:15and the yellower and creamier it is, the longer that melon sat ripening on the vine in the sun.
03:21But on a melon picked too soon, that spot is pale, white, or greenish, hardly colored at all,
03:28for it was pulled before it had time to ripen and turn that spot yellow.
03:33So, you turn the melon and find that ground spot, and you want to see a good, creamy yellow, near
03:40orange even.
03:41White or green, leave it be.
03:43It was picked too green and will be pale and poor inside.
03:48Creamy yellow.
03:50That is your first yes.
03:51And the reason it works is plain once you know it, for that yellowing takes time.
03:57It deepens the longer the melon lies ripening on the vine.
04:01So a rich, creamy yellow spot is the melon telling you it hung there and ripened full and was not
04:07rushed off green.
04:09The deeper and more buttery that yellow, the longer and fuller it ripened, and the sweeter it will be.
04:16So do not just glance for any pale patch.
04:19Look for that good, deep, cream-to-butter yellow.
04:23The second sign is the blossom end, what folks call the belly button,
04:28the little spot on the bottom end of the melon opposite where the stem was.
04:33This is where the flower was, before ever the melon grew,
04:36and its look tells you whether the melon ripened proper.
04:40On a good ripe melon, that blossom end is brown, dried, and a bit sunken,
04:45a small brown dimpled spot telling you the melon hung on the vine and ripened fully and naturally.
04:53But if that end is green or pale or hard and undried,
04:58that melon was picked too early, before it finished, and it will not be sweet.
05:03So you check the belly button, and you want it brown and dried and dimpled.
05:08Green there, put it back, it came off the vine too soon.
05:13Brown, that is your second yes.
05:16The third sign is the sound it makes when you tap it,
05:20and this is the one folks fumble, thumping away with no idea what they are listening for.
05:25It is simple.
05:27You give the melon a good rap with your knuckle, or a flick of the finger, and you listen.
05:32A ripe melon, full of sweet juice, answers with a deep, low, hollow sound,
05:39a rich, full thump, like rapping on a barrel full of water, or on a good drum.
05:45That deep, hollow note is the sound of a melon full of ripe juice.
05:50An unripe melon, or an old, overripe, mealy one, gives a different sound,
05:56a higher, flatter, duller, more solid thud, a dead sound with no ring to it.
06:03So you rap it, and listen for that deep, hollow barrel note.
06:07A high, dull thud, leave it.
06:10A deep, hollow ring, that is your third yes.
06:14It takes a little practice to hear the difference,
06:17so the next time you cut open a melon you know is ripe and sweet,
06:20give it a rap first, and fix that deep, hollow barrel note in your ear,
06:25and once you have heard it a few times against a dull green one,
06:29you will never mistake it.
06:31Some folks hold the melon up near the ear as they tap,
06:34and you can feel the good ones almost hum and shiver with the ripeness when you rap them.
06:39Get all three, the creamy yellow spot, the brown belly button, and the deep, hollow sound,
06:45and you have a ripe, sweet melon, near guaranteed, every time.
06:51Now those three are the great signs, and they alone will serve you well,
06:55but let me give you a few more old checks to make you a true master of it,
07:00for the old melon folk used these too.
07:03The first is the heft, the weight.
07:05You pick the melon up, and a good ripe one feels heavy,
07:10surprisingly heavy for its size,
07:12because it is full and dense with sweet juice and water.
07:16Heft two melons of the same size,
07:19and take the one that feels heaviest for its bigness,
07:22for that is the juiciest.
07:24A melon that feels light for its size is dry or hollow within.
07:29The second extra check is the skin itself.
07:32A ripe melon has a dull, not shiny rind,
07:36for the shine dulls as it ripens,
07:38so a hard, glossy, shiny melon is often underripe,
07:42while a good dull, matte finish means ripe.
07:45And a good, tough rind you cannot easily scratch or dent with a thumbnail
07:49means a mature melon,
07:51where a soft skin that marks easy is a green one or an old one.
07:56The third old check is the webbing,
07:59those rough, brown, corky, net-like patches and lines
08:02you sometimes see on the skin,
08:04which folks call sugar webbing.
08:07Those brown, webby marks are a fine sign,
08:10for they are scars where the bees pollinated the flower well,
08:13and the more of that pollination, the sweeter the fruit.
08:16So a melon with good brown webbing is often an extra sweet one.
08:21And the last, if the melon still has its stem,
08:25or the little curly tendril near where the stem was,
08:28look at that tendril,
08:29the little curled vine tendril nearest the fruit.
08:33On a ripe melon, that tendril has dried up brown and curled,
08:37for it dries as the melon finishes,
08:40while on an unripe one, it is still green and fresh.
08:43A dried brown tendril means ripe,
08:46a green one means it came off too soon.
08:49So there is the whole art of it,
08:51the three great signs and the extra checks.
08:55But you need not fuss over every one,
08:57for the three, the yellow spot,
09:00the brown belly button, and the deep, hollow sound,
09:03will pick you a sweet melon on their own near every time.
09:06And the others are just to make doubly sure.
09:09And here is the fine thing,
09:11these signs work on any watermelon,
09:13the great long ones,
09:15and the little round icebox kinds,
09:18and the dark-skinned sugar melons alike,
09:20for a ripe melon shows the same signs,
09:24whatever its size or kind.
09:26So, whether you are picking from your own patch,
09:29or choosing at the market or the roadside stand,
09:33read those signs,
09:34and you will carry home a sweet one every time,
09:37and never again cut into a pale, disappointing one.
09:41Now, let me say a small, plain word,
09:45not a who-profits sermon,
09:47for the melon is no one's scheme.
09:50But there is a plain thing worth noticing,
09:53that this knowing costs nothing,
09:55and is worth a great deal,
09:57and it has simply been lost.
09:59Time was,
10:01every soul knew how to pick a melon,
10:03for folks grew them,
10:05or bought them at the stand,
10:07from a grower who taught them the signs.
10:09Now, most folks stand baffled in the store,
10:13thumping away with no notion what they listen for,
10:16and take pot luck,
10:18and half the time bring home a poor one,
10:20and think it just the way of melons.
10:22It is not.
10:24The melon told them plain it was green,
10:27they only did not know its language.
10:29So, this is not a thing anyone hid from you,
10:33it is just old common knowing,
10:35that slipped away when folks got far from the growing of their food,
10:39and it is yours again now,
10:42free,
10:42and it will save you many a poor melon.
10:46Now that you have picked your fine, ripe melon,
10:49let me show you the easy, old way,
10:51to cut it into clean, sweet cubes,
10:54with no mess.
10:56First, a plain word on your knife,
10:58for it makes all the difference.
11:00Use a good long knife,
11:03longer than the melon is wide,
11:05a big knife,
11:07for a little short knife
11:08makes hard, clumsy work
11:10of a big, round melon,
11:12and is more dangerous besides
11:14sawing away at it.
11:16A long, sharp knife
11:18goes clean through,
11:19and cut on a good, steady board
11:22that will not slide,
11:24and mind your fingers well,
11:26for a big, round melon can roll,
11:28which is the very reason
11:30we cut the flat ends first,
11:32to stop it rolling under the knife.
11:35A rolling melon and a knife
11:37are no friends.
11:38Take it slow and steady,
11:40and keep your holding hand
11:42clear of the blade's path.
11:44So, take your melon
11:46and cut a slice off each end,
11:48the top and the bottom,
11:50so you have two flat ends.
11:53Now, stand the melon up
11:55on one of those flat ends,
11:57steady on the board,
11:58and it will not roll on you.
12:00Now, you take your knife
12:02and cut down the side,
12:03following the curve of the melon,
12:06shaving the green rind off in strips
12:08from top to bottom,
12:10turning the melon as you go,
12:12round and round,
12:14until all the green rind
12:16is cut away,
12:17and you have a bare, red globe
12:19of nothing but the good, sweet flesh.
12:22Flip it over and shave off
12:24any bits of rind you missed.
12:26Now, you have a whole melon
12:28of clean, red flesh
12:30and no rind.
12:32Cut that in half
12:33and lay the halves flat side down.
12:36And now, it is simple.
12:38You just cut it across
12:39one way into slices,
12:41then across the other way
12:43into a grid,
12:44and it falls into neat cubes.
12:47Scoop them up with the flat of your knife
12:49into your bowl,
12:50and there you have a whole bowl
12:52of clean, sweet, seedless cubes,
12:55no rind, no mess,
12:58ready to eat or to chill or to share,
13:01far handier than gnawing
13:03at dripping wedges.
13:04That is the old, tidy way
13:06to serve a melon.
13:08So there it is,
13:09the whole of it,
13:10how to never again bring home
13:12a poor watermelon
13:13and how to cut a good one
13:15down clean.
13:16Look for the three signs,
13:19the creamy yellow field spot,
13:21the brown dried belly button,
13:23and the deep, hollow barrel sound,
13:26and take the one
13:27that is heavy for its size
13:29with a good, dull rind.
13:31Then, top and tail it,
13:34stand it up,
13:35shave off the rind,
13:36and cube it down.
13:38Do that,
13:39and every melon
13:40you carry home this summer
13:42will be sweet
13:43and red
13:43and dripping,
13:44and you,
13:46the one at the picnic
13:47who always seems to pick
13:48the perfect one,
13:49for now you know
13:51the melon's plain old language.
13:53Now I want to hear from you.
13:55Tell me down below
13:57whether you knew
13:58these three signs
13:59and which one
14:00was new to you,
14:01for I find most folks
14:03know the tapping,
14:04but not the yellow spot
14:05nor the belly button.
14:07And tell me your county
14:08and whether you grow
14:09your own melons
14:10or buy them
14:11and what kind
14:12is your favorite,
14:13for I do love to hear it.
14:15I read every one.
14:17Next time,
14:18I want to show you
14:19how to tell
14:20when all manner
14:21of other fruit
14:22is ripe and ready,
14:23the old ways
14:24to know a good cantaloupe
14:26and a ripe peach
14:27and a sweet plain apple
14:29and the rest
14:29by their signs,
14:31the same plain knowing
14:33for the whole fruit basket
14:35so you never bring home
14:36a poor one
14:37of any kind again.
14:39The old people
14:40knew the plain language
14:41of the things
14:42they grew and ate,
14:43could read a melon
14:45or a peach
14:45or an ear of corn
14:46at a glance
14:47and know it ripe,
14:49a knowing handed down
14:50and worth more
14:52than any label
14:53or price.
14:54There is a quiet richness
14:56in that,
14:57in reading the signs
14:58a thing shows you
14:59and never being fooled,
15:01in knowing your food
15:03the way the old folks did.
15:05The people who built
15:06this country
15:07with their hands
15:08knew that
15:08and we are only
15:10just starting
15:10to remember it.
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