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I've got a real gift for picking ripe cantaloupes, but ripe honeydews elude me, picking-wise. I could eat watermelon until it came out my ears. (Fiber! Vitamins! Filling but relatively low in calories!) Muskmelons, the 'loupe look-alikes with ridges, however, don't do much for me. I've had one Charentais, and liked it, although I really don't find it much different from a perfectly ripe 'loupe. We have kids in our family who don't like any melon because parents, desperate to get them to eat something beyond chicken fingers and fries, would buy out-of-season dreck melons and feed it to them. I managed to persuade one to try a small wedge of perfect cantaloupe, and he understood, at the ripe old age of 12, but it's hard going with those tastes in your head.

Sorry Perky, but I can't even stand the smell of melons, let alone eat them. And I try a tiny piece from time (if I manage to make myself get past the smell), but just like with bananas, I always fail to fall in love. Watermelon is the only exception, my favourite combinations being watermelon with balsamic reduction and watermelon with some nice feta.

Hey Perky.....I'm getting so hungry for local produce....with the jam question & now this melon question! lol
I love cantalope & watermelon....watermelon being my favorite. I've never been fond of honeydew much. I do like casaba melon too.

I'm with you brooke29, don't like melons. I've actually given up on watermelons now too. They just don't do anything for me. I don't actively dislike them like I dislike honeydew and cantelope, but they haven't done anything for me since childhood. Oh well.

@lo82070, I sometimes say I'm allergic. Sometimes it's easier than "ew." This is after realizing that my dad had been faking a melon allergy all his life.

When I'm at a restaurant, I almost always feel like melon is put on the plate as a filler. I feel cheated. Don't offer fruit and then give me nothing but honeydew and cantaloupe.

@blackolive - when I was a kid and invited to birthday parties I told the moms that I was allergic to cake - when it was really the fact that even back then I HATED that "bakery icing" on cakes....blech. I was such a little liar.

I do like watermelon, I have some every now and then, it just makes my glands swell and my throat scratchy. That's why it's almost impossible for me to order a fruit plate - all melon!

lo82070!!!!! Me too! Every time I tell someone I'm allergic to melons, they don't believe me, but they make my mouth itch and my face feel hot. I'm well pleased to know it's not just me.

I also have to admit that while I am not lying about the melon allergy, it does not distress me at all - I find melon of all kinds to be vile, especially cantaloupe. I once, as a teenager, felt compelled to force myself to eat it out of social politeness, and I remember the experience vividly. It's one I will never repeat.

Here in Oklahoma its the Black Diamond watermelon people have been known to be peppered with rock salt trying run one of those off the watermelon patch

I'm not too much of a melon expert so I tend to stay with the basics. My favorite is a well ripened, sweet cantaloupe. As a child, a neighbor introduced me to the part of heaven occupied by this treat with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream nested in its hollowed out center! While traveling in Latin America, I became accustomed to squeezing a lime or lemon over wedges of cantaloupe. It is one of my favored methods when I remember to buy both at the same time. Second place goes to the sweet honeydew. No particular reason, I just like its taste and texture. In the summertime, I often eat my weight in watermelon. From day one, I have always sprinkled my ample wedge with a dusting of salt. I get lots of reactions out of this practice but for me, watermelon is naked without it. I ascribe it to my southern roots since I learned this at my father's knee but really don't know if this is a common practice there or not as I've always lived in the North.

@czken.........I put salt on cantaloupe, but never thought to try it on watermelon. I love ice cream with cantaloupe, but not so much with watermelon. I have tasted good honeydew in fruit salads, but I have never bought a tasty one, ever. Maybe the good ones are grown elsewhere?

@huney..........you are probably banned from alcohol, as I am. Once our doctors give us thumbs up, let's go for it baby! Party time and everyone is invited!!!!

@Perky & Huney--I'll be there. Watermelon and tequila = Wookie's infamous watermelon margaritas. Whooboy!

Orange flesh with imported prosciutto and honeydew with home grown chocolate mint.

@Perky: Black salt on watermelon is pretty amazing too, sorta reminds you of feta with watermelon, but more pungent and with a bite.