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[unicornduke]

 The tropical storm is just starting to move through our area, mostly just the extended arm and it is raining pretty decently right now. Winds aren't supposed to be here until afternoon. It is cool for once and we turned off the AC and opened the windows. Sounds of rain are nice. Predicted cone looks like its going to roll right over our area but it seems to be losing power. 

I texted a friend down in MD, checking in on them. They've got power outages but seem okay so far. 

I'm working from home today because I think everyone in my industry is. Chatting with people yesterday sounded like everyone was scrambling to get stuff done before the storm. The amount of rain we're going to get means it will be a few days before it's dry enough to get into the fields. I get to go into the field tomorrow to count thrips on onions, which will be a delight I'm sure. 

We were scrambling to harvest watermelons from our variety trial yesterday. That just means I came home with four large watermelon halves (we did taste and brix tests but you only need one half for that and the other gets photographed and then we take them home.) and three small round watermelons. I ate so much watermelon yesterday. I fear a little for my digestive system. We've got another harvest of them on Friday, which means another taste test :)

Comments

[graydon]

I get to go into the field tomorrow to count thrips on onions, which will be a delight I'm sure.

First rate understatement!

And may be it be some close approximation of a free-draining onion field.

[unicornduke]

lol it is hard to tell. It's on the black dirt, which used to be a swamp until immigrants drained it in the 1800s (incredibly wild! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Dirt_Region). There are a lot of drainage ditches along fields but the ground is so rich and high in organic matter that it can hold onto the water so well. other factor is that it becomes powder when dry and it was very dry last week.

Who knows! It is a mystery that I will find out tomorrow. I'm bringing my muck boots for sure.

[graydon]

May the muck boots prove mighty!

There are big onion fields -- I doubt it's just onions, but that's the traditional name -- by Point Pelee where a lot of people go birding. You don't go into the fields -- bad community relations! -- but every year (probably even this year) someone has a damp, damp day creeping down the side of the ditch for a better look at a heron. (Lake Erie is right there, so the ditches are vast.)

[unicornduke]

Not super squishy today!

Wow, Point Pelee is some true swampy swamp! I commend the courage of birders

[graydon]

Huzzah, more land than water!

Birders may not be courageous so much as lacking sense.

[oracne]

Mmm, watermelon. Do you eat yours plain, or with salt? I have discovered that my preference of salting it is mostly Southern regionalism.

[unicornduke]

I eat it plain (from PA and grew up on a fruit farm), but that's because I love all fruit plain and fresh. Pretty meh on cooked fruit. In the summer about half of what I eat is fresh fruit because I love it so much. We're partway through the second half of a melon and I'll probably finish it tonight.

I might try the salt thing though! I've heard of doing it with cucumbers too

[dorchadas]

I'm not a big watermelon fan, so I'm curious what makes a good watermelon in a taste test?

It's better with salt, though!

[unicornduke]

It's a combination of taste and texture. For the most part, all of the watermelons we ate were acceptable for sale (the farmers we work with are direct to consumers so they want tasty melons without worry about shipping conditions). So for taste, it should be at least decently sweet and tasty to eat (which can vary some but most commercial watermelons are relatively similar in the actual taste aspect). Textures can vary from soft and melt in the mouth to chewier and "meatier" as long as it is still pleasant to eat. Veins in the melon also contribute to texture. We also look at the seeds, since these were all seedless watermelons, we looked at the pericarps which are the "seeds" that don't develop, are they hard, are there a lot of them or in the case of one variety, it only had 2-3 regular black seeds in the half we took apart and no pericarps which was very neat. There shouldn't be weird aftertastes. There shouldn't be cracking in the flesh, which would make it unmarketable. The texture shouldn't be mealy or sandy.

So we take notes on everything I mentioned above and then rate them on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the best watermelon ever and 3 being an average melon. Of the 10 we tried on Monday, only one scored below a 3 and that was because it had a weird aftertaste.

We also do these kinds of taste tests on peas, potatoes, sweet potatoes, lettuce and other vegetables so you kinda get a feel for how to rate things. It only becomes trouble when someone decides to plant 30 varieties and then has to try them all in one session. Thankfully I was spared eating 30 varieties of lettuce because I hate lettuce. My coworker seriously regretted that trial.

[dorchadas]

Thanks! It's always interesting to get a glimpse into something like this that I have no idea about.

Did any lettuce score a 5?

[unicornduke]

Some did score a 5. Coastal Star, Dragoon, Kraginer Somer, Muir, Nevada, Salvius and Zeb Romaine all did. Some were sweeter and some were more bitter but still tasty.