Watermelon buying tips

• Watermelon

Watermelon goes great with salads or even lemonade. (Tom Wallace/Minneapolis Star Tribune/MCT)

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So, you’d like watermelon for your Fourth of July get-together. Here are a few tips to follow when buying one:

• When a watermelon is ripe, it loses its shine, and the skin on top — the portion of the melon that was exposed to the sun when it was in the field — becomes slightly rough to the touch.

• A creamy belly — the portion of the watermelon that rested on the ground — is a good sign but not a guarantee of ripeness.

• Those with sensitive ears (and strong wrists) can “sound it out.” Hold the melon away from your body with one hand and slap it lightly with the other. A ripe melon should “ring,” and you can feel it vibrate. A very high pitch indicates it’s probably green; “if it’s ‘dead,’ like when you slap your stomach, it’s probably overripe.” The exception is seedless watermelons, which have a higher pitch when ripe.

• The National Watermelon Promotion Board advises you to lift watermelons before buying and choose one that’s heavy for its size.

• If you’re at a farmers’ market, look for “sugar spots,” brown flecks on the surface of the skin. At supermarkets, these spots are usually seen as imperfections and are washed off before sale.)

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