January 11, 2011

Sniff Test

I must admit, I was completely captivated watching this woman at the downtown Farmers Market.  Methodically, she selected a melon, pressed the rind to  her nose and sniffed deeply a couple of times before she returned it the stack only to repeat the process with a different melon.  She did this about a half dozen times and was so focused on her task, she didn't even notice yours truly a few feet away frantically adjusting camera settings and ducking down to include those lovely shades of yellow and green in the foreground.  Turns out her name is Linda and she determines the freshness and sweetness of a cantaloupe by smelling it.  And, here I thought the only way to pick a ripe melon was to push the end with your thumb!  Thanks for the tip, Linda.  I'll look forward to incorporating it into my fruit selection process.  I just hope my schnoz is up for the challenge.     

8 comments:

Lorraine said...

My mom taught me to smell, not push. lol. It doesn't always work for me though. Lovely lemons!

Birdman said...

Smell 'em? I just eat 'em! Ha! What does she do to the lemons?

James Mark said...

Neat picture. This is the typical French way of testing melons before buying. It worked for us.

Ernie said...

What's it supposed to smell like? Eau de Toilette?

Kathy said...

Smelling is supposed to be the tried and true way (except with watermelons I suppose). However, they all smell the same way to me!

Halcyon said...

I always smell them. If you get a faint whiff of that yummy melon-y smell, you know it's a good one!!

tinyskillet said...

Yup! It works for pineapples too. If it doesn't smell like a melon or pineapple...it won't have the flavor and sweetness that you like! Nice shot though!

Clueless in Boston said...

I've only ever used the thumb test too! I'll have to try the sniff test when we get some fresh melons here in Boston. Nice composition.