Whatta Melon!

For more on Mennonite grown watermelons in Casey County, click here.

Melon season has arrived in south-central Kentucky and here are some great recipes for beating the heat with melons: Watermelon recipes. Did you know that watermelon is also high in arginine? I didn't either, or know that was important, until I read this. Yes, watermelon can actually boost your metabolism!

A friend of mine shared this recipe with me last summer. It's like a Watermelon-Lime Aqua Fresca and is absolutely refreshing. I'm sure you could even substitute cantaloupe or any other melon of your choosing.

WATERMELON COOLERS

• 3 cups diced watermelon (preferably cold)
• 2 Tbsps. lime juice
• 1 Tbsp sugar (optional or you can add other sweetener)
• 1 cup crushed ice (or a few cubes thrown into blender)
• 1/2 cup water (also optional)

Put all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Pour into glasses, over ice if desired, and garnish with a fresh mint sprig or lime wedge. Makes a blender full and serves four.

You can also chunk up watermelon in fruit salad, serve it with greens and feta cheese (very delicious) or just enjoy it fresh from the melon. One day I want to make watermelon sorbet, but a cooler in the blender is so much easier. In this heat we're actually considering a watermelon and BLT diet. I'll let you know how it goes!

We will have local melons for a few months now––enjoy them while they're here: sweet, sweet summer on the vine.

The watermelon harvest at the Melvin Hurst farm in Casey County.

In the words of Mark Twain (from his Autobiography):

I know how a prize watermelon looks when it is sunning its fat rotundity among pumpkin vines and “simblins”; I know how to tell when it is ripe without “plugging” it; I know how inviting it looks when it is cooling itself in a tub of water under the bed, waiting; I know how it looks when it lies on the table in the sheltered great floor space between house and kitchen, and the children gathered for the sacrifice and their mouths watering; I know the crackling sound it makes when the carving knife enters its end, and I can see the split fly along in front if the blade as the knife cleaves its way to the other end; I can see its halves fall apart and display the rich red meat and the black seeds, and the heart standing up, a luxury fit for the elect; I know how a boy looks behind a yard-long slice of that melon, and I know how he feels; for I have been there. I know the taste of the watermelon which has been honestly come by, and I know the taste of the watermelon which has been acquired by art. Both taste good, but the experienced know which tastes best.