Bogue Sound watermelons are a coastal delicacy

Dr. Eleanor Spicer Rice is an entomologist who was trained at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. She is a regular contributor to Our State magazine. She recently wrote about the science of Bogue Sound Watermelons. 

What makes Bogue Sounders special, she said, is a combination of “salty air; long, hot days and cooler nights; and sandy soil.” 

“These are the things that make sugars pool in the crisp, red fruit,” Dr. Rice wrote. “The salty air keeps leaves healthy, and the sunny days help those leaves make extra sugar. The sandy soil helps minerals tumble and flow through watermelon roots with ease.”

 

To earn the official Bogue Sound Watermelon sticker, a watermelon must be grown “on land that drains directly or indirectly into Bogue Sound.”

 David and Sarah Winberry opened Winberry Farm Produce in 1993 in Cedar Point to sell farm-fresh local products. He believes a key, contributing element is “summer’s heat and high humidity” that blanket Bogue Sound farmland. David Winberry said: “It simply can’t be too hot” for Bogue Sound Watermelons to grow successfully. 

One acre can produce upwards of 2,500 melons per season. Most growers plant in three or four stages, so the melons are harvested from late June through Labor Day. 

Picking a ripe watermelon is ‘an art and a science’

Heather Overton of the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services asked Jasper Jones of Jones Family Farm in Stella in western Carteret County how to tell if a watermelon is ripe? 

“The older generation can tell by the sound a watermelon makes,” Jones said. “It should be a deep thump or hollow sound. If it is more of a ping, that melon is probably not ready.” 

Unlike other fruit and melons, watermelons do not continue to ripen after being picked. That underscores the importance of learning what to look for in order to take home a winner.

The N.C. Cooperative Extension Service advises: “A good watermelon should be symmetrical, heavy for its size and firm – 92% water. Look for a pale cream or buttery yellow spot on the underside of a watermelon; this indicates that it is ripe. If the spot is white or green, then the watermelon is under ripe.”

 

Watermelon-ologists have a saying: “If bees think it’s a good watermelon, it probably is.” 

Some people still believe that honey bees know how to sniff out a sweet, ripe watermelon and then try to “get in to feast on the juicy flesh.” As a result, the bees are said to leave scratchy tracks of their attempted forced entry. 

Oldtimers say the markings left by the bees have significance and offer a visible recommendation that consumers should heed when shopping for watermelons at the market. 

These melon tracks often look like scars and are familiarly called “bee stings,” but Joanne Ozug of New London County, Conn., creator of the Fifteen Spatulas food blog, tells us bees don’t actually sting watermelons. 

The produce department manager at Ozug’s local supermarket – a fellow named Tom – remarked to her: “Bees do not sting plants. They sting only in defense. I can’t imagine why they would find a watermelon threatening.” 

Ozug advises her readers to “look for the sugar spots and pollination points that leave the scarring signs on watermelons. They are places where the rind tore a little from growing too fast. This would mean there was plenty of water and nutrients available during the growing, which would make sense that the fruit is particularly tasty.” 

“If you see black spots on the melon, this is where sugar is seeping out and indicates a sweet melon. Also, if you see dots in a line or a webbing effect, these are pollination points, and the more of them the better,” she said.

 

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA) states that “the more webbing on a watermelon, the more a bee pollinated the flower. The more pollination, the sweeter the fruit.” 

Furthermore, the PDA says that “there are boy and girl watermelons. Boys are bigger and shaped like an oval; they have a watery taste. Girls are smaller and circular; they are the sweeter of the two.” 

Julianna Purcell of Belton, Texas, creator of the Tangled with Taste social media site, said: “Select a melon that is slightly dull green in color,” Purcell said. “The brighter the green of the melon; the less-ripe the melon.”