GOOD NEWS: Doppler Dave shows what the summer watermelon outlook looks like

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - With the school year about to begin, many people will be trying to enjoy last minute summer activities and seasonal foods.

The summer season brings many activities and passed times for folks as well as some nice seasonal foods, and one of my favorite parts of summer times is eating watermelons.

Watermelons are grown in many Texas locations and the ones arriving in our stores, seems to extra good this year.

“They have been really dark and red and sweet,” said Mary Kerr, produce manager at a United Supermarket.

Mary Kerr has been monitoring produce, including watermelons for 20 years.

“They have had optimal growing conditions down south. They mainly come from Plains, Brown Field in Seminole Texas, and due to the timing of the heat and the rain is why the watermelons have been so good this year,” said Mary.

While to overall crop has been good this year there are still ways to increase the likelihood of picking out an excellent melon.

“You want to look for a lot of the webbing because the webbing means the bees have pollinated the flower which in turn makes the watermelon sweet. You want to find a lot of yellow, dark yellow or orange are the best because that shows how long they have been sitting on the ground. The black part is not rot, it’s sugar where the sugar is starting to seep out,” said Mary. “You definitely don’t want to pick out the prettier watermelon, you want to find out ones that are pretty ugly.”

I asked about the thumping theory people use to pick out a watermelon.

“A lot of people who are old school, would thump the watermelons, but it’s really the outside that you go after,” said Mary.

If you are a watermelon connoisseur and have not yet have your fill this summer, the outlook is encouraging.

“We should have them through, I would say, September, October,” said Mary.

For watermelon lovers like me this some extra good, extra sweet crop of Texas watermelons and they are going to be available for the next couple of months.

Now that’s some good news!

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