How To Pick The Perfect Cantaloupe

How to pick the perfect cantaloupe.

Have you ever wondered how nature knows exactly what you need, when you need it?

Think about it.

The seasonality of fruits and vegetables provides variety and important nutrients at just the right time.

Food is also a connector of memories, places, and people with whom we’ve shared a meal and our lives.

Cantaloupe is that food for me.

He’s no longer here to enjoy it with me, but cantaloupe was one of my father’s favorite fruits.

Nothing speaks more loudly about summertime and my dad than a good, fresh cantaloupe with its sweet flavor and its sweet memories.

As the Cantaloupe World Turns

It’s thought that the Armenians first brought this luscious fruit to Cantalupo, Italy, the city from which this melon derives its name.  This is where Pope Paul II ate cantaloupe in excess and some claimed this was the reason for his collapse and early death in 1471 at age 54.

Cantaloupe is a member of the muskmelon family along with the smooth-skinned honey dew melon, and the Armenian cucumber which looks more like a cucumber, but it’s a melon.

And the whole world has fallen in love with cantaloupe.

As of 2016, worldwide production was more than 31 million tons with 51 percent coming from China.

Picking the Perfect Cantaloupe

Have you ever watched people in pursuit of the perfect melon at the grocery store?

People circle the wagons around the cantaloupe display, pick it up, feel it as they turn it in circles, and of course, smell it — all of which actually helps in getting that exquisite bite of summer in your mouth.

Next time you’ve got a hankering for cantaloupe:

1. Make sure it’s heavy for its size
2. Symmetrical
3. Has no soft or bruised spots
4. Has a sweet smell on the blossom end of the melon
5. The netting should be raised and it should have a golden hue, not green

It’s definitely a summer fruit so buy it when the weather is hot.