We enjoyed our second – and final – watermelon from the garden last night.
Trust me – I sighed a big sigh of relief when I saw that it was ripe and had not yet gone to sugar!
So how did I know when to pick it?
I followed my friend Martha’s example – I thumped it. 
Now I’ve thumped many a grocery store melon pretending to know what I was doing – in hopes of bringing home a good one. But they all sounded the same.
So when Martha thumped my first melon and proclaimed it done – I thumped it too. Then I thumped this melon that was smaller. I could hear the difference. The ripe melon sounded hollow – or full of water and echo-ey. The non-ripe melon sounded dull and full.
The reason I could never hear the difference in the grocery store melons was because all of those melons were ripe. I was trying to thump them to find a good tasting one – which doesn’t work.
I’ve been thumping this guy for more than a week now – just waiting for that hollow – echo-ey sound.
The stem was still green and attached and the bottom of the melon still looked white – but I heard that echo, so I picked it. Thankfully it was ripe and tasty. The thump test worked again!
So am I now a “thumping” expert? Not even close!
Right now I’m just wishing for a few more watermelons on my plants so I can practice my newly-discovered knowledge!
Happy thumping!
