Dale sends this in: “I get drilling a hole and putting in a straw in to drink presumably the water and, thanks to Google, the reference to Adolph Menzel a Realist artist. But looking at his work, I didn’t see anything like fake versions of real stuff.
What I don’t get is what’s the green and maybe also pink putty for. Why do the watermelons have spots and seams from end to end? Are these not supposed to be watermelons? If these two were making fakes then why is she slurping?
Oh and what’s that critter poking its head out from behind the woman’s leg?”
Comics I Don't Understand 
Not drinking water, sucking out the seeds to make an old (seeded) watermelon into a “seedless” one. Then patching the hole.
So they’re real watermelons and really seedless, but unfortunately (hopefully?) empty of most of the actual watermelon.
I thought I already left this comment, but I don’t see it. Moderators, please delete if this is a duplicate.
The workers are drilling holes in the watermelons, removing the seeds with straws, then dealing the holes with putty. The deseeded watermelons are then sold as seedless.
What Usual John said. The watermelons have lines and spots because watermelons do (although the spots seem to be getting bred out of commercial watermelons these days). No idea on the critter though. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a random little doodle to cover up an error in the art.
The critter is a thing McPherson sticks into all his comics. It’s his equivalent to Oliphant’s Punk or the *$&%! squirrel. It has a name, but I don’t know what it is. He also likes to hide it like the stuff in Bizarro.
I think the pink container is where they spit out the seeds (and some of the pulp).
Usual John,
For no discernible reason, your original comment was marked as needing moderation. I deleted it, left the second.
I think the spots are drill holes.
If she is sucking out seeds then the pink jar is where she spits them.