by Chef Ted

If you want to make your family and guest smile when they see your Cantaloupe or other fresh fruit and vegetables on the table then learn the secrets of the few who know how. They do it in minutes and now you can too.   This is just a cancataloupe an orange or apple and a black olive. I'll show you how to make me in minutes. WOW.

For most of us picking a melon at its peak of ripeness and flavor means choosing one in the store, not finding one that you tug off the vine. So here are some tips for "harvesting" that perfect melon in the produce section or farmer's market.   Smell: Breath deeply and follow your nose to the sweet ripe melon. Sniff the aromatic one out.   Look: A beige honeydew with distinct green veins reveals immaturity. Pale yellow with bright lemon-colored areas suggests it matured on the vine. Cantaloupes are unripe when the skin beneath the textured “web” is green and ripe when orange or golden.   See if the bottom is slightly flat and yellow or has a bleached spot. This means that it flattened under its own weight on the vine in the dirt. That’s good. Check to see if the stem end is moist (good) or moldy (bad).   Feel: It should be firm but not a rock. If soft or soft spots it’s too far gone. Sponginess is bad.   Listen: Honeydew will rattle from loose seeds when ripe. Cantaloupes are unreliable rattlers and this doesn’t work on them. Thump it. Knock on it as if it were a door a couple of times. A deep and thick dense sound is good a hollow sound can mean insufficient moisture. Guess. All indicators will not always work. Take your best shot and go with it.       Be sure to check out the other pages and order one of the great How to Video's