Thumping the watermelon

August 22, 2010 - 8:41 AM by Jessica

It’s not a great summer for fruit in Israel; prices are high as a result of the extreme heat we’re experiencing this summer, and the Farmers’ Association reported that the main fruits affected by the heat wave are peaches, plums, grapes, nectarines, and watermelons. A shortage of these fruits is likely, they say, and moreover, their quality isn’t great. The peaches turn rotten within seconds, the nectarines aren’t as sweet as usual and the watermelons aren’t worth the trouble.

When we cut open a “personal watermelon” yesterday afternoon, besides being full of seeds — horrors! — it just wasn’t any good. Which led to a discussion of how the watermelon had been chosen.

“Did you ask for help?” I asked my husband, Daniel, who handled the food shopping this week. He looked back at me in disdain, as if he would need help for such a task.

At that point, my brother-in-law chimed in with his watermelon-picking story of the previous week. He was choosing a watermelon, which in his case meant looking over the selection and sticking one in his cart. Meanwhile, another customer, an older Israeli gentleman, was busy thumping all the watermelons in the case, clearly checking for that hollow sound that lets you know the watermelon is ripe and ready for eating. When he saw that Ira was picking without checking, he was astounded by the carelessness of his act.

“What, you’re not gonna check to see if it’s ready?” he asked Ira. Knowing Ira, he probably smiled and shrugged. Maybe he smirked. So the older man thumped it, nodded and handed it back to Ira.

The moral of the story? I’m thinking that regular watermelons are probably better this season than the engineered kind. As for our dud, I ate some with feta cheese, which saved it a bit. As for the rest, I’m going to try a granita, which is never a bad thing during this kind of weather.

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