My country is losing its mind

[struggle4progress]

[Lady Freedom Returns]

1. Smoking a watermelon?

Who was smoking what to come up with this one?

[Arkansas Granny]

2. This is just wrong.

The best way to eat watermelon is to go to the field where is Is grown, bust it open and scoop the heart out of it and eat it right there in the field. It doesn't get any better. (Of course, it helps to know the grower before you do this.)

[Wawannabe]

4. I like it chilled first

With salt!

Yum!

[struggle4progress]

5. +

[csziggy]

16. Since I don't know any watermelon growers, the best is from the roadside vendors

Often they have grown the watermelons themselves or gotten them from the growers. Not far from here ( around Live Oak, Florida) is one of the big watermelon growing areas. Many of the watermelons sold in the local grocery stores come from there around there so they are very fresh and good. If I know I will not be able to eat all of the watermelon quickly I will buy quarter watermelons from the store just to avoid waste, the best are those bought from the trucks on the side of the road!

[Arkansas Granny]

17. I've been told that while many fruits will continue to ripen after being picked, melons don't.

If they are picked before they have fully ripened, their flavor won't improve.

[csziggy]

18. Yes, I've heard that, too

I do know that watermelon goes bad pretty quickly after being cut open. When I buy from roadside vendors, I ask for the smallest melon they have on the truck. My husband doesn't like watermelon very much, but I could eat one a week during the season!

[First Speaker]

3. Can't somebody prove that this is contributing to global warming...?

...nip this in the bud...

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. Maybe it would be an improvement.

In recent years the watermelons I buy at a supermarket have an odd, funky taste, and are not very sweet at all. I've given up buying them, just as I long ago stopped buying peaches because they were invariably mealy and not very good.

[Kali]

7. those little mini "personal" sized ones are sometimes decent

and it isn't so much waste if one is not great... even the bigger round seedless ones tend to be OK most of the time

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

15. Those are at least as bad.

Again, a funky, almost musky flavor. Not at all sweet. Nothing like the seed filled watermelons I recall from my youth.

The problem isn't waste because regular watermelons are so big. The problem is they have no flavor.

[Arkansas Granny]

12. Most supermarket produce has been bred to ship well at the cost of flavor.

Farmer's markets often have varieties grown for taste, plus they are miles fresher.

[Kali]

8. I confess there have been a few times I have tried grilled fruit

and even though it goes against my every instinct they were pretty good. but this? WHY????

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

9. Oooookay

[DFW]

10. If somebody wants me to try smoked watermelon

I want to see them eat escargot sushi first.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

11. I thought everyone knew about watermelon roasts at a campfire.

Nothing new, at least not in the South..............

(And please don't ask me to repeat that old joke on DU)

[DFW]

13. I'm from the south, and I never heard of it!

Just for the record, I have never heard of anyone eating escargot sushi, either.

[Fla Dem]

14. Why? Just Why?