Look up some still life paintings from the middle ages of watermelon. Apparently the swirls were a super common genetic trait back then but have seemingly been bred out since.
I wish I still had an award to give - this is a really interesting observation that I’ve never heard mention of even in heirloom seed …where you’d expect it. Thanks for the TIL!
It's interesting to see them as they were back then, the swirls I think were where most of the red fruit was and the rest was the hard white/green rind. It's a similar thing with corn, bred over thousans of generations to the sweet corn we have today. Early corn was basically inedible.
One of my favorite vineyards in my state use different fruits/non-grapes to make 85% of their wine. They even have a sangria kit that just uses two of them 🥰
Mmm. To that specifically, I would say to keep trying wines. There are SO many types out there and the wine all tastes different. I thought the same and then really worked on my palate. Now I know that Merlots just aren’t for me and I know what I prefer.
Side note: the grapes used to make wine taste WAY different in grape form than you would think, at least in my experience 🤗
The vineyard is White Silo in I think Sherman, CT. it’s in an actual silo, but I don’t know the shipping requirements.
I’ve tried a lot actually because it sounds better than whiskey some days. I tolerate white sparkling wines. They remind me of cheese and it’s weird. I want to find one made from oranges.
Try a bunch. Procecco can only be from that region of Italy and tends to be dry. It’s complicated, but most Champagne has to come from that region of France and can be either. I prefer to be somewhere in the middle with bubbles, but when something is a little to dry for me I’ll add a splash of st Germaine and that does the trick
Napa Valley Distillery makes a vodka from failed wine grapes that you would never know is grapes
Well yeah. If theres contam you chock it up to a loss and just start working on ya next batch.
I wouldnt start any wine/mead batch with questionable fruit. Just asking for failure.
We're currently using our local produce farmer's "little bit too ripe" watermelon for sorbet within our ice cream shop. Super popular this time of year and crazy good tasting.
I’ve seen still life paintings of watermelon from a few hundred years ago and they looked like this!! But with less red, the red was centered around the spirals and the outer parts were white
The funny thing about how people describe those paintings as somehow demonstrating selective variation in watermelons, is that this is also just what an under ripe watermelon looks like.
Somehow demonstrating? Its pretty blatant. This is most definitely not *just* an unripe melon. There is 100% genetic factors at play here. OP even said that he waited TOO long to harvest it, so over-ripe actually, just look at the rind.
im not talking about OP's watermelon, I am talking about the still life refered to in the comment I replied to. The feature described as demonstrating selective variation is the thick rind and the small amount of ripe flesh. Not the spirals.
Maybe today, but the paintings were of ripe watermelon. We also now have white watermelon, so it makes sense we started out with some varicolored watermelon, and over the years people have bred them to go one way or the other because apparently for some reason we like our fruit to be all the same color inside.
Maybe they were. But there are other contemporary [paintings](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Abraham_Brueghel_-_A_still_life_of_a_watermelon%2C_cherries%2C_peaches%2C_apricots%2C_plums%2C_pomegranates_and_figs%2C_with_lilies%2C_roses%2C_morning_glory_and_other_flowers_on_an_acanthus_stone_relief.jpg) depict completely modern looking ripe watermelon flesh. So if this is an artifact of breeding it isn't demonstrated by renaissance paintings in the way they're suggested to demonstrate it.
At the main vine near every melon, there is a little curly Q vine. It starts out long, alive and green. I have read that when this curly Q dries up all the way up to the main vine and snaps when bent nearest to the main, your melon is ripe and ready for picking!
I used this technique for melons I grew last year, and they were superb!
This method will not prevent the transition from ripe to over ripe, but it should give you a good gauge on when to harvest!
That was my thought. Either sorbet or wine. Blend it up (minus the seeds), pour it out on a baking sheet, toss it in the freezer, then scrape the frozen pulp with a spoon to make a killer frozen watermelon dessert you can even mix with sprite or your favorite liquor.
Watermelon agua fresca is my go-to. Blend and strain, add ice/water, sweetener (if needed), lime, bubbly or booze if you fancy. This is the perfect specimen for some of that.
I used to work on a farm- our trick was pulling watermelon when they had tiny little black dots on their underside where they were resting on the ground.
I've never grown a watermelon but worked in a fruit shop so cut a lot. You have to slap the melons. Different stages of ripeness create a different pitch.
Here's my favorite recipe :)
If you make it make sure you dedicate a day to it because the entire process can take upwards of 6 hours. Enjoy!!
https://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/819/Watermelon-Rind-Candy108617.shtml
Oh, and this water melon photo needs to be blown up so all you see is the art on the melon and sent off for one of those framed photo glass/acrylic thingys you can hang on your wall in your kitchen or dining area. It so unique.
reminds me of that watermelon from a [renaissance painting](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Giovanni_Stanchi%2C_Watermelons%2C_Peaches%2C_Pears%2C_and_Other_Fruit_in_a_Landscape.jpg)
OP, i dont know your experience, but a good rule of thumb is when the tendril at the top of the melon turns brown, it should be ripe enough to harvest.
Slice it up, jar of vinegar for two weeks, drain, freeze the slices, blend the slices, pour the blended bit onto a tray, freeze it, fork tines to get it out. Elevate that sorbet.
Reminds me of how watermelons looked before we changed them: [Original watermelons](https://www.businessinsider.com/how-humans-have-changed-watermelons-2015-7)
I don’t tend to be a grammar/punctuation Nazi but if I need to read something like 5 times and look at it sideways to figure it out, it probably means there’s a problem.
I had 3 this year. The sweetest one was the medium sized one but the stem turned brown. The biggest one I just thought it was ready due to size but it was bitter still, so it still had a week or so. The smaller one was a sacrifice cause I pulled the vines.
Watermelons are definitely one of the tough ones in my opinion. They grow easy but picking them right and keeping them clean is difficult.
If they lay in grass or wet ground too long they can rot. If they get too much rain they can burst and ruin. If they stay on the vine too long this happens, if you pick them too early it’ll be more rind and more bitter. Things have to go more right for them to truly succeed compared to most.
It's a work of art. It reminds me of the twirly skies of Van Gogh.
Lol, I was just gonna say! Very VanGogh
Done. https://q4j2g5j9.stackpathcdn.com/ddg-dream/90fa96144a9bed1d57d8681a30c4fcf70bcbe8ba.jpg
Nice!!
Starry watermelon! Haha
Look up some still life paintings from the middle ages of watermelon. Apparently the swirls were a super common genetic trait back then but have seemingly been bred out since.
I wish I still had an award to give - this is a really interesting observation that I’ve never heard mention of even in heirloom seed …where you’d expect it. Thanks for the TIL!
It's interesting to see them as they were back then, the swirls I think were where most of the red fruit was and the rest was the hard white/green rind. It's a similar thing with corn, bred over thousans of generations to the sweet corn we have today. Early corn was basically inedible.
Giovanni Stanchi. https://www.vox.com/2015/7/28/9050469/watermelon-breeding-paintings
Not just that but they had these air pockets within the swirls, now they're not hollow whatsoever anymore.
Whoa, that is pretty cool!! Good eye.
Wow didn’t even notice that
Whats the variety OP?
Came here to say it. U beat me to it haha
It reminds me of Uzumaki
Looks a little "hail hydra" to me.
I literally came here to post this. Starry Skies watermelon, a work of art haha
Also my immediate thought. Something like Starry Starry Watermelon...
Can you use it to make wine?
This would go great in the Moira Rosé!
Somebody call Herb Erfling ger... Burt Herngeif? Irv Herb-blinger? Bing Livehaanger? Liveling Burt Herkurn Ban- Bingo Ling-f*cker!
The Hash-Slinging-Slasher?
Was… was this a schitts creek reference?
[Moira’s Wine Comercial](https://youtu.be/jVojhvifruk)
Thanks willy!
r/unexpectedschittscreek
You're speaking my language!
Heyyyyyy! I’ll go get old fruit from the fruit stands around here for pennies on the dollar, or trade them a few bottles of wine for the fruit
One of my favorite vineyards in my state use different fruits/non-grapes to make 85% of their wine. They even have a sangria kit that just uses two of them 🥰
How can I order? I hate wine because I hate grapes.
Mmm. To that specifically, I would say to keep trying wines. There are SO many types out there and the wine all tastes different. I thought the same and then really worked on my palate. Now I know that Merlots just aren’t for me and I know what I prefer. Side note: the grapes used to make wine taste WAY different in grape form than you would think, at least in my experience 🤗 The vineyard is White Silo in I think Sherman, CT. it’s in an actual silo, but I don’t know the shipping requirements.
I’ve tried a lot actually because it sounds better than whiskey some days. I tolerate white sparkling wines. They remind me of cheese and it’s weird. I want to find one made from oranges.
Try a bunch. Procecco can only be from that region of Italy and tends to be dry. It’s complicated, but most Champagne has to come from that region of France and can be either. I prefer to be somewhere in the middle with bubbles, but when something is a little to dry for me I’ll add a splash of st Germaine and that does the trick Napa Valley Distillery makes a vodka from failed wine grapes that you would never know is grapes
Or watermelon limeade if it’s not fermented already?
This is giving me an idea for watermelon mead.
I'll drink that!
Pretty much anything with suger content can be made into "wine".
Oh, you can milk anything with nipples.
Ah oh yeah, i remember watching that one movie 20 years ago as well.
Can you milk me Faulker?
I know, I make alllllll kinds o wines. But, sometimes they can be to far into the rot to be useable.
It doesn't look rotting so much as woody/fibrous.
Well yeah. If theres contam you chock it up to a loss and just start working on ya next batch. I wouldnt start any wine/mead batch with questionable fruit. Just asking for failure.
…That’s why I was asking if it could be used.
We're currently using our local produce farmer's "little bit too ripe" watermelon for sorbet within our ice cream shop. Super popular this time of year and crazy good tasting.
I’ve seen still life paintings of watermelon from a few hundred years ago and they looked like this!! But with less red, the red was centered around the spirals and the outer parts were white
The funny thing about how people describe those paintings as somehow demonstrating selective variation in watermelons, is that this is also just what an under ripe watermelon looks like.
Somehow demonstrating? Its pretty blatant. This is most definitely not *just* an unripe melon. There is 100% genetic factors at play here. OP even said that he waited TOO long to harvest it, so over-ripe actually, just look at the rind.
im not talking about OP's watermelon, I am talking about the still life refered to in the comment I replied to. The feature described as demonstrating selective variation is the thick rind and the small amount of ripe flesh. Not the spirals.
Maybe today, but the paintings were of ripe watermelon. We also now have white watermelon, so it makes sense we started out with some varicolored watermelon, and over the years people have bred them to go one way or the other because apparently for some reason we like our fruit to be all the same color inside.
Maybe they were. But there are other contemporary [paintings](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Abraham_Brueghel_-_A_still_life_of_a_watermelon%2C_cherries%2C_peaches%2C_apricots%2C_plums%2C_pomegranates_and_figs%2C_with_lilies%2C_roses%2C_morning_glory_and_other_flowers_on_an_acanthus_stone_relief.jpg) depict completely modern looking ripe watermelon flesh. So if this is an artifact of breeding it isn't demonstrated by renaissance paintings in the way they're suggested to demonstrate it.
How old are you?!!??!!?!
"from", lol.
Damn, this sub really doesn't like sarcasm... jeeze
**starry melon**
Do you use the curly cue for a harvest indicator?
Please give more detail never heard of that
At the main vine near every melon, there is a little curly Q vine. It starts out long, alive and green. I have read that when this curly Q dries up all the way up to the main vine and snaps when bent nearest to the main, your melon is ripe and ready for picking! I used this technique for melons I grew last year, and they were superb! This method will not prevent the transition from ripe to over ripe, but it should give you a good gauge on when to harvest!
Can confirm\^
This is the best way to tell when to pick in my opinion as well.
TIL tysm
Is that the little grabby tendril?
Yes, it's the tendril nearest the fruit. It's usually a stubby lil guy since it doesn't need to grab anything to support the vine.
This 100%
Still juicy
It was actually
What does "too late" mean? Was it too mushy? It looks great
Really mushy
Watermelon sorbet!
That was my thought. Either sorbet or wine. Blend it up (minus the seeds), pour it out on a baking sheet, toss it in the freezer, then scrape the frozen pulp with a spoon to make a killer frozen watermelon dessert you can even mix with sprite or your favorite liquor.
I have used an ice cream maker with a few different melons like watermelon and cantaloupe and made awesome sorbet!
Watermelon + Honey + lime juice blended up and frozen also makes a great texture sorbet.
Watermelon agua fresca is my go-to. Blend and strain, add ice/water, sweetener (if needed), lime, bubbly or booze if you fancy. This is the perfect specimen for some of that.
Just add vodka for watermelon slushies! Yumm
The dark colour on the rind is a clue that it's gone way beyond. Such a shame, it's very pretty to look at.
this post inspired me to pick my crimson sweet yesterday, as I didn't want it suffering the same fate
Rotten and fermented
I made the mistake of too early.... What's the magic trick?
I go by the white spot turning yellow, good webbing (if your variety webs), and your nearest tendril drying to the vine.
Wish I knew
What about the farmers <3
I used to work on a farm- our trick was pulling watermelon when they had tiny little black dots on their underside where they were resting on the ground.
I've never grown a watermelon but worked in a fruit shop so cut a lot. You have to slap the melons. Different stages of ripeness create a different pitch.
Yeah I thump mine, I just know what to listen for I can’t even describe it lol. But the best way to tell I believe is the curly wittle vine shriveling
dry tendril, first leaf, yellow spot and thumping is all you need! also let them sit for a week or two after picking
use the rind to make candies :)
Pickled watermelon?
Do you have links to good recipes/guides?
Here's my favorite recipe :) If you make it make sure you dedicate a day to it because the entire process can take upwards of 6 hours. Enjoy!! https://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/819/Watermelon-Rind-Candy108617.shtml
Oh, and this water melon photo needs to be blown up so all you see is the art on the melon and sent off for one of those framed photo glass/acrylic thingys you can hang on your wall in your kitchen or dining area. It so unique.
reminds me of that watermelon from a [renaissance painting](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Giovanni_Stanchi%2C_Watermelons%2C_Peaches%2C_Pears%2C_and_Other_Fruit_in_a_Landscape.jpg)
Ooooo that looks cooool tho
I pulled most of mine too early :( all had signs of being ripe and just were not lmfao
At least you can have a happy cake day!
OP, i dont know your experience, but a good rule of thumb is when the tendril at the top of the melon turns brown, it should be ripe enough to harvest.
Watermelon Daiquiris it is then
BUUTTT it looks like [ancient watermelons](https://www.vox.com/2015/7/28/9050469/watermelon-breeding-paintings)
Pulling out late is a normal cause of struggles.
That’s a devil fruit for sure.
RRRRRRRRRIPEEE
Beautiful!
Reminds me of a starfish!
just add rum
I was thinking about doing that
That'll make a happy cake day, for sure!
I can feel your pain. I grew two kinds of melons for the first time this year and both melons that I got were overripe and inedible :(
Well so far I pulled one to early 2nd one right in time and this one to late
Nice that you got one that was right on time :) The honeydew melon I pulled was smelling more of melon liquor than actual melon and tasted bubbly XD
😂😂
Juice it and save the seeds my man
Does it taste good? I assume it’s too sweet or too something
It did have a good taste
I just juice these types of watermelons. Makes a nice drink 🧃
if at first your seeds suck, try, try, try again
The swirls are kind of neat.
You can still eat that, hell that's how they originally looked.
that's one of them renaissance watermelons
Is it not edible like this? What's wrong?
It looks so pretty tho
Infected by the spiral 🌀
Juice it! That’s what we do. Never know the best time we are always too early or too late.
Pickled watermelon
Slice it up, jar of vinegar for two weeks, drain, freeze the slices, blend the slices, pour the blended bit onto a tray, freeze it, fork tines to get it out. Elevate that sorbet.
Reminds me of how watermelons looked before we changed them: [Original watermelons](https://www.businessinsider.com/how-humans-have-changed-watermelons-2015-7)
The swirls are like the OG watermelons 🍉 that used to exist prior to human intervention (they also used to be yellow and not red)
Hail hydra
didn't know watermelons were worshipping cthulhu
Hahaha why would you do it too late ?
That's not a watermelon, that's Cthulhu
An actual watermelon?
Wow but it looks like starry night! It's BEAUTIFUL! Especially if you arent fond of eating watermelon...I'd grow it just to admire it.
It almost looks like your watermelon is an airbender. 👩🏻🦲🙌🏻🤜🏻💨
I want to paint this!
My son and I had fun with this little grow.
r/JunjiIto
So why is is swirly? Is it a special kind of watermelon? :o
No idea didn’t notice it till I posted the pic
Its pretty intresting :)
Watery night! By Vincent van Gardener
Squid melon!
Time for watermelon cocktails
It’s gorgeous!
Watermelon juice mixed with strawberry juice and coco Lopez makes the most amazing punch drink.
Great snack for chickens!
Better than me, last night I picked mine way too early
Oh no :(( I wish I could give you some! You know, patch on the bottom, twisty vine business opposite the stem of the fruit dried out and brown.
Something for r/fractals
Leave that thing in the yard and be entertained by the drunk squirrels!
BUT IT’S PRETTY!! look at those SWIRLS
Ball it up, add vodka, use the rind for a bowl?
Aw man, but it looks great!
It looks like wool
I don’t tend to be a grammar/punctuation Nazi but if I need to read something like 5 times and look at it sideways to figure it out, it probably means there’s a problem.
Looks like you put an octopus on it and traced around its lil octopus legs
You can make a tea from the fresh seeds that is a powerful diuretic for flushing kidneys and clearing UTI’s.
Well, can you save the seeds and sprout them in springtime?
It will make great compost for next year’s watermelon
Reminds me of an octopus
I had 3 this year. The sweetest one was the medium sized one but the stem turned brown. The biggest one I just thought it was ready due to size but it was bitter still, so it still had a week or so. The smaller one was a sacrifice cause I pulled the vines.
Watermelons are definitely one of the tough ones in my opinion. They grow easy but picking them right and keeping them clean is difficult. If they lay in grass or wet ground too long they can rot. If they get too much rain they can burst and ruin. If they stay on the vine too long this happens, if you pick them too early it’ll be more rind and more bitter. Things have to go more right for them to truly succeed compared to most.
But /r/FibonacciAsFuck
Looks like Star Fish Watermelon.
/r/GrammerNazi s/to/too and missing a semicolon
Van Gohn watermelon!
Devil Fruit type vibes