It is the season – and a short one at that – when one of the sweetest and juiciest gifts from the earth is at its peak.
You can pick one up at the grocery store, a farm stand, or the farmers market, but I get mine off the back of the truck parked in the convenience store lot from John, the watermelon man.
His watermelons are from a field in Scott County, Missouri, where the town of Blodgett was once known as the watermelon capital of the world and where Beggs’s farm, operating since 1895, is the biggest melon farm in Missouri—and July is bumper-crop month!
They need three things to grow: lots of water and sun, of course. The melon is 92% water, grown in rows and in raised beds in sandy soil, which requires 8-10 hours of direct sunlight a day. But they also need bees—the primary pollinators of the crop. Watermelon plants have male and female flowers on the same vine, but they need pollination to produce fruit. Bees, when collecting pollen for themselves, inadvertently transfer pollen from the male to the female—and bam—you got fertilization and fruit development.
There’s lots of watermelons to choose from: over 1,200 varieties but you probably know the four more common ones like:
Crimson Sweet (it’s the big guy with light green stripes and weighing in between 15 and 35 pounds).
Or the Jubilee, large and oblong, or the Charleston Gray, also oblong but not as large and has a gray/green rind.
I know you’ve seen the small round dark green Sugar Baby, aka the icebox watermelon, which gets its name due to its early maturity.
The yellow ones called Buttercup or Yellow Doll are good, too, and I certainly need to try some heirloom melons if for no reason other than they have names like Georgia Rattlesnake and Golden Midget.
A watermelon farmer referred to it as the “happy fruit—when you think of it, it makes you smile.” I think that’s because it’s carving fruit.
You’ve seen the half—or whole—watermelon siting proudly on a table, with its edges scalloped perfectly or carved into something you didn’t think it could become—like a robot or cactus plant or penguin, which, yes, made me smile—or it served as a punch bowl full of fruit and beverages.
Somewhere along the way, watermelon started a relationship with feta cheese, and it has endured. Salty, tangy feta cheese complements the sweetness of watermelon—a contrast in flavor and texture. Variations of watermelon and feta recipes are common in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisines and thought to have existed for centuries.
Watermelon possibilities are endless. Enjoy it simply as it is—one cup only has 46 calories, vitamin A, C, and B6, so it’s good for your body. Have it in a smoothie or as a daiquiri or margarita—real or mock—which screams summer in a glass. It can be an appetizer—watermelon, prosciutto, and feta skewers, maybe? Slices or chunks dipped in chocolate sound like a winner, and beat the summer heat with a little heat from a chili-lime watermelon popsicle.
One more thing—you can eat the whole thing—so don’t throw it all away. Watermelon rind pickles, a classic southern delicacy, are easy to make from the rind. They’re tasty as they are or bacon wrapped and popped in the oven.
You can have watermelon any time—the biggest melon farm in the world is in Brazil, producing year-round—but they are at their best now, so get yourself one today. Look for a pale or buttery yellow spot on the bottom of the watermelon—that means it’s ripe and ready for you. And, please, support your local farmers.
Join me next time, to find out what’s On the Menu.
