mmmmm Honeydew Melon

At the garden's 6pm catchup tonight, we were deciding if the Honeydew Melon was ripe or not. It sounded hollow when we tapped it, the skin was pale yellow and it smelt ripe. So armed with a sharp knife, we cut it open. It was beautiful, as Clare and Ali can testify.

I've done some further reading on how to tell if a Honeydew is ripe, so along with things we looked for you could also try these.

• If you rub your hands over the melon, you will feel some fine veining that you can't easily see. You can see the veins on an immature melon.
• The flower end of the melon (opposite end to the stalk) is soft to the touch.
• If you gently shake the melon, the fibers surrounding the seeds will pull away and you should be able to hear the seeds moving around.
• Lick your thumb and rub it over the melon. If you get the melon to squeak, it is ripe.