We picked our first watermelons from the field and they are sweet and juicy. There are many discussions about how to tell if they are ripe, but my old way of thumping them to listen for the deepest tone and looking at the flat spot on the bottom to see if it is yellow is still my favorite. We have three varieties of watermelon, Crimson, Jubilee and Bush Sugar Baby that we call the refrigerator watermelon. They range from about 5 lbs to 30 lbs. The Bush Sugar Baby are dark, dark green, almost black but so sweet you could eat the whole thing! The cantaloupes are just about ready. Each day I check to see if there is at least one to try but after counting the days from planting until now, it looks like next week they should be ripe. On Tuesday we have a booth at the Gridley downtown Farmer's Market. It is so much fun with live music, Fat Boy hot dogs and great vendors. I sold out of the very large slicing tomatoes. They were so beautiful, perfect for a sandwiches where one slice fills the whole size of the bread. You never see tomatoes that large in the markets and the wonderful flavor is hard to describe. At the self service stand and at the Farmer's Market, we also have available cherry tomatoes, Romas, and Early Girl. Hope to see you Gridley next Tuesday night!!!
