How I Choose Sweet Watermelons

I always had bad luck choosing sweet, whole, watermelons. So, I was forced to pay higher prices for cut melons.

Florida watermelon with large yellow patch indicating
sweetness, Fla.

Then someone gave me a tip on how to find sweet watermelons: tap on the side of it and listen for a hollow sound. I thanked them and eagerly rushed to the nearest fruit stand to try my new skill. I discovered all melons sound hollow when tapped.

After tapping a dozen or so melons, I took a chance and bought one. When I got it home I discovered my tapping/listening for hollow sounds ability was broken. The melon was OK but not as sweet as I was hoping.

I tried several more times but the results were always the same. Finally, I was forced to go back to buying cut pieces of melon.

Then two years ago, at an Atlanta farmers' market, I got a chance to talk to a watermelon farmer. I asked him how he determined when his fruit was at the peak of sweetness. He said he looked for the ones with a large yellow patch on their skin. This told him the melons had been lying in the fields long enough to become very sweet.

He sold me one of his yellow-patched melons. When I got it home I pleasantly surprised to discover it was one of the sweetest melons I had ever tasted.

It's watermelon season now in Florida. And I just bought a melon using the farmer's technique. Mmm...it's crisp, sweet, and delicious and just as good as the watermelon I tried in Georgia.

Wine And Cheese: Cental Florida Style

I was recently in Orlando, and picked up some food items grown and made in the Central Florida area. I put them together into a sandwich, made with out-of-state mustard and bread.

Central Florida sourced cheese, wine, and greens

For the filling I used creamy, tangy chunks of raw-milk Blue Cheese from Winter Park Dairy (Winter Park), and crunchy greens from Heart of Christmas Farms (Christmas). I chose Orange Sunshine wine to accompany the sandwich. It was made out of fermented florida grown oranges. It was produced by Florida Orange Groves Winery (St. Petersburg). The wine reminded me a lot of a German dessert wine.

Goat Milking And More At Bedner's Farm Earth Day Event, Boynton, Fla.

Foodies gathered at Bedner's Farm to celebrate the Earth and Florida. It was Earth Day. The group--Gulp! Food and Libations organized the event with help from the Bedner's Produce Market family members. They invited 20 Florida companies to showcase their food, alcohol, and products.

Jojo of Goodness Gracious Acres Farm, milking goat--Nikita
at Bedner's Farm Fresh Market, Gulp's Earth Day celebration,
Boynton Beach, Fla.

There were several short 15 min demonstrations/speeches of various topics like goat milking by Jojo Milano of Goodness Gracious Acres Goat Farm/Delilah's Dairy (Loxahatchee). And "Where does your food come from," speech by Francesca from Francesca's Terra Verde Farm Club.

Francesca from Terra Verde Farm Club at Bedner's
Farm Fresh Market, Gulp's Earth Day celebration,
Boynton Beach, Fla.