I’ve heard a lot of watermelon myths in my time as the Watermelon Guy, but this one takes the cake. The video above, posted by Stacy Lyn Harris, owner and author of the blog Game & Garden, claims that you can test a watermelon’s ripeness or sweetness using a piece of straw from a common household broom.
Stacy’s method is new to me (check out my blog entry to learn about more traditional ripeness-testing methods), and one that I’m dying to test. According to her article, this method of checking a watermelon’s ripeness dates back as early as 1945, where a picker places “a broom straw horizontally across a watermelon. If the melon is ripe, the straw will turn to a 45-degree angle; if it is green, it will not move.” Apparently, as the watermelon ripens, it becomes more magnetic, and the broom straw acts like a compass needle.
So, does this method really work? I tested it for myself on three different watermelon, including one chosen because it looked less ripe than the others. When placed on the riper watermelon, the straw really did move a little (through not much). When placed on the less ripe watermelon, the straw didn’t move at all.
Is that concrete proof that this method really works? I’m not convinced, but if you want to take a piece of broom straw with you during your next trip to the grocery store, I wouldn’t fault you one bit!
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I’ve been trying this on yellow meat melons and the straws really move. I used much shorter straws at about 2 to 3 inches….
I’ve been using this method for years. I’ve stopped at road side stands and have had growers tell me it don’t work, so far I’ve proved them wrong by picking unripe melons out of their stock. The only problem with this or any other method is that it will not tell you if the melon is over ripe.
My 92 year old friend has done it with a broom straw since she was a kid, in the 20’s.
I had to look it up to see if it was common knowledge other than in her town in Pennsylvania.
My wife just tried this on a watermelon she got because she seem people taking about it so I had to Google it and found your page 1st. Liked the video as well, thanks!
We just picked our first Sangria watermelons. My husband put a straw on the watermelon and it turned all the way around! He tried it on 3 melons and the straw moved every time!
I think you guys made a mistake unintentionally. The straw test performed the best on WM #4, Overall It turned out to be the best watermelon in terms of taste. Curiously it seems like the straw test is working!