On a recent morning outside the Cordele State Farmers Market, a Ford pickup with a 5-foot mound of watermelons in its bed eases to a halt – and Brian Nichols goes to work.
He starts slapping melons. Gently, mind you. Tapping. Patting. And listening … for the telltale twang of ripeness.
As his right hand tap-tap-pats the melons, he looks like a drummer playing strange botanical bongos. That or someone dribbling basketballs. The riper ones emit ringing, higher-pitched peals.
Nichols is an inspector for a company called the Georgia Federal-State Inspection Service. Over the past 10 years, he has developed an ear for what ripe melons sound like.
During the selling season in this town 100 miles north of the Florida border — one that has long billed itself as the world’s watermelon capital — Nichols mans a hut near U.S. 41 and the sprawling market’s front gate.
He visually checks incoming loads for quality, an often brief process that typically includes a smattering of rhythmic pats.
Nichols, try as he might, can’t find a dud in the Ford pickup’s load. But as he makes his way around the truck, one finally thuds.
“It sounds,” he says, “like a flat basketball.”
🍉 See Nichols’ watermelon wizardry in action and read more about the Cordele State Farmers Market
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