Juicy Watermelons Arrive At Hey! Hot Dog: Photos

JOLIET, IL — It's time for the third and final installment of Joliet Patch's coverage of the popular farm stand at Joliet's iconic Hey! Hot Dog restaurant on Ruby Street. This week, Hey! Hot Dog employees B.J. Uedelhofen and Lauren Turk began selling the watermelons from their respective farms in the Shorewood and Plainfield area.

Hey! Hot Dog now has three different types of watermelon available: big-red seeded, yellow seedless and red seedless. Price varies depending on the watermelons' size. Some watermelons are $8 or $10, while the ones for $12 are 35 to 40 lbs, they said.

"I try to pick whenever they are ripe," Turk told Joliet Patch's editor on Friday. "We've cut open about a dozen so far just to make sure they're sweet and good."

The addition of the watermelon stand has kept the staff at Hey! Hot Dog busy this week.

"Usually people buy one to try, and then they will come back for two or three more," Turk said of the watermelons.

In addition, Hey! Hot Dog also sells its produce at a stand on Black Road in Shorewood and in Plainfield at the Eaton Preserve on 135th Street. All three locations are open Monday through Saturday. In addition to the watermelons, Turk and Uedelhofen also have plenty of red tomatoes and their sweet corn for sale.

They plan to do at least two more watermelon harvests in the coming weeks, through mid-September.

"Some people ask if they're ripe, we only pick ones that I think are ripe," Turk explained. "But you never know until you cut it open."

The Hey! Hot Dog farm produce stand opens at 11 a.m., the Shorewood stand on Black Road opens at 10 a.m. and the stand at Eaton Preserve opens at 10:30 a.m.