Thump, thump, thump: It's the sweet sound of summer.

Melon season – finally! – has rolled into local markets, bringing a refreshing low-calorie treat to hot-weather meals.

After a slow start due to cool weather, melons are ripening en masse and should be in good supply through October.

"Everything is about two weeks later than usual," said Luis Miranda, owner of Wholeness Farm in Lodi. "Melons love heat; 90 degrees or more. Now that it's finally heating up, they're catching up."

Along with many different vegetables, Miranda grows five varieties of organic melons and sells them at Sacramento's Wednesday farmers market at Cesar Chavez Plaza. He describes their flavors like fine wines.

"Galia – it's very fruity, tropical with a hint of honeydew," Miranda said as he offered a chunk of this Israeli muskmelon. "Charentais – very French with a hint of butterscotch. True cantaloupe; smells sweet, but it's very light on the palate. Muskmelon – it has a butterscotch aftertaste, but not as complex."

He saves his best for last: The odd Piel de Sapo.

"It's very crisp, very sweet; the sweetest of all melons," Miranda said. "It measures 60 degrees on the Brix scale (the same scale used for the sugar content in wine grapes); most melons top out at 50."

More than a dozen different varieties of melon now can be found at local farmers markets. But America's overwhelming favorites remain the big three: watermelons, cantaloupes and honeydews.

That trio represents 99.2 percent of all melons sold in the United States, according to Produce Retailer, an industry publication. Actually, it's more like the big two; watermelon makes up 51.5 percent of supermarket sales, cantaloupe, 40.9 percent.

Over the past decade, our consumption has remained steady. We each eat about 25 pounds of melon a year, usually between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Our taste for watermelon has shifted away from the cumbersome 20-pounders to compact seedless varieties such as PureHeart (marketed under the Dulcinea brand). They're smaller (under 5 pounds) and fit easily in the refrigerator.

Most of the watermelons we eat here come from California, which will account for 205 million pounds of watermelon this season, says the National Watermelon Promotion Board.

We're lucky; our melons may be late, but they'll be plentiful. Extreme heat and drought withered the watermelon crop in Mississippi, Georgia and Texas, reports the USDA. That's made melon prices creep a few pennies higher nationwide.

Tired of watermelon? We're in Cantaloupe Central, with more than 90 percent of the nation's summer crop grown in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys.

Said Miranda, "It's our rich soil and the heat; that's what makes a great sweet melon."

More melons to try

Canary: Shaped like a bright yellow football, this melon has firm, almost crisp white flesh that blushes light pink or orange around the seed cavity. Extremely sweet when ripe.

Cantaline: A cross between a cantaloupe and a honeydew, it has a smooth, pale rind but sweet orange flesh.

Casaba: Native to Asia, these yellow-green wrinkled melons are pointy on one end, flat on the other. The yellowish white flesh is crunchy and barely sweet unless fully ripe; these melons tend to ripen unevenly.

Charentais: The "French kiss" melon, these pint-size cantaloupe cousins are smaller than a softball but very sweet with a hint of butterscotch.

Collective Farm Woman: A native of Ukraine, these small early melons go from green to orange on the outside, with light yellow-green flesh that's very sweet and aromatic.

Crenshaw: A cross between Casaba and Persian melons, these yellow melons have an acorn shape and sweet green or salmon-pink flesh.

Galia: An Israeli melon, these look like cantaloupes but with pale, white flesh like a honeydew and a scent like bananas.

Hemi or Hami: Originally from China, these giant yellow melons with a netted skin have a crispy white or pink flesh that crunches like an apple.

Persian: Like a large pointy cantaloupe, these green netted melons have mild pink flesh.

Piel de Sapo or Santa Claus: Its Spanish name means "toad skin"; the bumpy rind has green and yellow stripes and almost a reptilian look. The white or pale-orange flesh is very sweet. The Santa Claus nickname comes from its longevity; these late-season melons can keep months, under the right conditions until Christmas.

Sharlynne: The outside looks like an elongated orange cantaloupe, but the light yellow-green flesh tastes like honeydew.

- Debbie Arrington

Melon 101

Selection

How to choose a perfect melon? These tips come from www. FruitsAndVeggiesMoreMatters.org, where you can see video clips of these selection methods demonstrated:

Watermelon: Look for symmetrical watermelons with dried stems and yellowish undersides that are dull in color. A white underside indicates immaturity. The best watermelons will feel heavy for their size.

Cantaloupe: Choose fragrant, symmetrical cantaloupes that feel heavy for their size with no visible bruises or soft spots. The stem end should give to gentle pressure and have a delicious, cantaloupe smell. Look for a yellow or cream undertone and a tight, well-defined "netting" pattern on the melon's surface. In Tuscan cantaloupes, the ridges should be pale. Avoid a melon with a rough stem attached; it was harvested too early.

Honeydew: Choose well-rounded honeydews that are nearly spherical. A honeydew should have a waxy, not fuzzy, surface and feel heavy for its size. Look for ones with a hint of yellow but no noticeable green tinge. The stem end of ripe honeydews will give slightly to gentle pressure.

• The thump test: If the watermelon is not too large, hold it in one hand and thump it lightly with the other. You should feel the vibrations in the bottom hand. A ripe watermelon sounds deep pitched, nearly hollow, like a thud. An immature melon has a higher pitched, almost metallic sound.

• The shake test: Ripe (and often extra-juicy) cantaloupes and muskmelons start to loosen their seeds. If you shake a very ripe cantaloupe, you can hear seeds rattle inside.

• If buying cut melon, make sure it's tightly wrapped in plastic and preferably kept on ice. It should have no soft or mushy spots.

Storage

Melons are picked when ripe and ready to eat. Most watermelons will keep up to two weeks without refrigeration; cantaloupes, honeydews and muskmelons, up to a week.

Melons are ethylene sensitive; they'll get soft and mushy if stored with pears, bananas or other ethylene-producing fruit.

Always store cut melon in the refrigerator, wrapped tightly in plastic. In cantaloupes and muskmelons, leave the seeds in place until ready to eat; that keeps the flesh from drying out.

Kept in an airtight container, cut melon chunks or balls can keep up to four or five days in the refrigerator.

Muskmelons tend to taste sweeter and more complex if brought to room temperature before serving.

Don't freeze melon; it destroys the fruit's texture - and can make a real mess. Because water expands when frozen and melons are mostly water, a whole melon tends to burst if put in the freezer.

Safety

Cantaloupes and other melons have been linked to salmonella outbreaks. In recent outbreaks in 2009 and this year, the suspect melons were imported from Central America. Earlier outbreaks were linked to Mexican melons.

Since 1999, California-grown cantaloupes have been part of an aggressive program to guarantee their safety. That includes regular inspections of fields and processing areas, according to the California Cantaloupe Advisory Board.

• The key to melon safety at home: Wash the melon's rind under running cool tap water before cutting. That should remove any bacteria clinging to the outside. Use a produce scrub brush if necessary, but no detergent.

Make sure that any cutting surface and knife used to cut up the melon are clean. Wash hands with hot soapy water and clean countertops before and after handling melons.

According to food safety experts, leftover cut cantaloupe or other muskmelons should be discarded if left unrefrigerated for more than two hours.

- Debbie Arrington

Melons at a glance

About 99.2 percent of melon sales nationwide are made up of the big three: watermelon, cantaloupe and honeydew. Here's a closer look at each:

Watermelon

Calories: 46 calories per cup

Nutrition: High in Vitamins A and C, watermelon has more of the antioxidant lycopene than tomatoes (that's what gives the flesh its red color).

The skinny: Watermelon lives up to its name; it's 92 percent water. Most of the remainder is simple sugar, making it taste so sweet.

An ancient food that's native to Africa, watermelon was cultivated in Egypt along the Nile for about 5,000 years (watermelon seeds were found in King Tut's tomb). The Moors introduced it to Europe, where it became an instant favorite. Watermelons eventually came to the New World along with African slaves and European colonists.

China, where watermelons have been farmed for more than a thousand years, still ranks as the world's largest producer. In the U.S., most watermelons come from Georgia, Florida, Texas, California and Arizona.

There are now more than 1,200 varieties of watermelon available, with Sangria the top-selling seeded hybrid. Most full-size watermelons average 18 to 20 pounds. The world record for largest watermelon: 262 pounds.

Cantaloupe

Calories: 60 calories per cup

Nutrition: Extremely high in Vitamins A and C with more than an adult's daily requirement of each in a single serving. Also high in potassium and the antioxidants beta carotene (responsible for the flesh's orange color), lutein, zeaxanthin and cryptoxanthin.

The skinny: Named for the Italian village of Cantalupo, cantaloupes fall into two categories: European or North American. The Euros have distinct ribs and a pale green skin. Actually a muskmelon, the American varieties have that familiar netlike skin but a round bowling-ball shape.

Cantaloupes love Sacramento weather. Most of the U.S. summer crop of cantaloupes - more than 90 percent - is grown in California's Central Valley.

It's perfectly normal for a cantaloupe to have one side dark, the other pale; the lighter color was where the melon sat on the ground while growing.

Cantaloupe can be a crunchy dry snack, too; freeze-dried cantaloupe chips (from Crispy Green) are now showing up in supermarkets.

Honeydew

Calories: 64 calories per cup

Nutrition: High in Vitamin C and a good source of potassium, honeydews are like watermelon - mostly water and sugar.

The skinny: Considered the sweetest of the major melons, honeydews are another muskmelon. A cantaloupe cousin, this melon was originally developed in Algeria and France, where it was known as White Antibes. Napoleon considered this melon his favorite food.

Sometimes lightly netted, the almost-smooth skin feels waxy and turns creamy yellow when ripe; the juicy flesh a pale green to almost white. Five-pounders have the best flavor.

Although they don't produce more sugar after harvest, honeydews taste sweeter if left unrefrigerated for a few days before serving. But they can spoil faster than other melons; eat within a week of bringing a honeydew home.

- Debbie Arrington

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.

Call The Bee's Debbie Arrington, (916) 321-1075

• Read more articles by Debbie Arrington