Tiny melons don’t thump

No, that is not a tiny CSA watermelon. That one is homegrown by me! This year, I planted watermelon in my garden. This year, unlike last year, watermelons grew. I only noticed this after I found one, half eaten, on the grass. That one was about half red, half rind. I was sad, but at the same time, I was excited. A watermelon grew! It survived enough to produce fruit! I finally found another one hiding under a zucchini plant. I trimmed zucchini leaves to give the vine more sunshine (and finally just ripped the zucchini plant out). I think there are a couple more melons growing now, too. Now, I planted a dwarf variety of watermelon. I just didn’t want huge melons taking over the garden (ha ha, what did I think they were, squash plants?) and I didn’t want to have to go through a whole melon before it went bad. These grow to be about the size of a bocce ball. Larger than a baseball, smaller than a dodgeball. But, it never gave off the hollow thump that you typically hear on the larger melons. So I tugged on it, thinking it would just fall off when it was ready, like tomatoes do. It stayed put. I thumped some more. It kind of sounded more hollow than the last time. I finally just pulled this one off, figuring at the very least it would have small bit of ripe fruit even if most of it was still rind. It sat on the counter for a week before I finally put it in the fridge because I like cold watermelon.

I finally cut it open and sliced it into the cutest mini watermelon slices I’ve ever seen. I had to put an egg next to it for size comparison:

It’s so small! But it’s really sweet and the fruit is very crisp. It’s just how I like my watermelons. They are not seedless watermelons, but I think this variety is sweeter than seedless ones. And, now I have seeds to plant for next year! Maybe I’ll go all watermelon and no squash!

Now I’m eager for the other melons to get bigger and sound kind-of hollow when I thump them. Hopefully the dogs don’t get to them first. Hooray for the garden!