# Personal Size Watermelon



## Addie (May 10, 2014)

Each year as soon as they come on the market, I start buying the small personal size watermelons. Not because I am crazy about them, but to get some much needed fluids into me. I try to find one that is as close to ripe as possible. Making sure all the stripes are complete and straight and hopefully there is some yellow where it sat on the ground. A lot of time that is not possible. So I settle for the best I can find. 

These 'melons have no taste so early in the season. But I need the fluids. But I made a discovery this morning. I had cut one in half the other day and failed to place a piece of plastic over the half I wasn't going to eat right away. Today I went to eat it and a lot of the fluid had evaporated and the top of the cut was very dry. Hmmm. It tasted like watermelon should. So from now on when I buy one, I will cut it in half and let both halves dry out before I start to eat it. The flavor only lasts down to where it has dried out. The only drawback to all of this.


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## cave76 (May 10, 2014)

Addie said:


> * But I need the fluids.*



I do too---- and I love watermelon. But you know what they say:
*"Fluids in. Fluids out!"*

Sigh.


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## Aunt Bea (May 10, 2014)

I'm also a big fan of watermelon!

I buy a small one or a half of one and when I get it home from the market I cut it into cubes and put it into a large Pyrex mixing bowl.  I cover the bowl with a dinner plate and put it into the refrigerator.  When I want a bowl of fruit I just give it a stir and each piece gets coated with juice.  I like this method because I only have one sticky mess to deal with as opposed to lugging out the melon each time and carving off a chunk.  I also find that I'm more apt to eat it if I don't have to go through the hassle.  When the fruit is gone I pick up the big bowl and drink the last of the juice!


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## salt and pepper (May 10, 2014)

Try adding a little salt to bring out the liquid.


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## cave76 (May 10, 2014)

As a kid we always ate watermelon with salt! I kept that up until just recently when I wanted to cut back on my salt intake.


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## Addie (May 10, 2014)

salt and pepper said:


> Try adding a little salt to bring out the liquid.



Good idea. Will try it on the next 'melon.


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## taxlady (May 10, 2014)

What's the point of bring out the juice with salt, unless you want watermelon juice? If you don't salt it the juice will be in the fruit that you eat and you will get all of it. Sounds to me like it would just make it messier.


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## cave76 (May 10, 2014)

taxlady said:


> * Sounds to me like it would just make it messier.*



Persackly!  The original Slurpy! Just wear your bathing suit.


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## Whiskadoodle (May 10, 2014)

We learned to do this in old Mexico.  Sqweeze some lime slices on melon to bring out the flavor.  Save your salt intake for Margaritas

Just saw a pic of this today.  Cut melon slices into triangles.  Stick a popsicle stick through the rind.  Freeze.  Eat. Preferably outdoors on a hot day.  Run through the sprinklers to rinse off.  Repeat all summer.  <<<  Well, they didn't Editorialize these last parts.   It makes for a fun visual.


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## Mad Cook (May 10, 2014)

Addie said:


> Each year as soon as they come on the market, I start buying the small personal size watermelons. Not because I am crazy about them, but to get some much needed fluids into me. I try to find one that is as close to ripe as possible. Making sure all the stripes are complete and straight and hopefully there is some yellow where it sat on the ground. A lot of time that is not possible. So I settle for the best I can find.
> 
> These 'melons have no taste so early in the season. But I need the fluids. But I made a discovery this morning. I had cut one in half the other day and failed to place a piece of plastic over the half I wasn't going to eat right away. Today I went to eat it and a lot of the fluid had evaporated and the top of the cut was very dry. Hmmm. It tasted like watermelon should. So from now on when I buy one, I will cut it in half and let both halves dry out before I start to eat it. The flavor only lasts down to where it has dried out. The only drawback to all of this.


I love the idea that you can buy individual sized watermelon. The only ones we see over here are giant sized ones as big as or bigger than your head. Not a viable proposition when you are the only one who eats watermelon.


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## taxlady (May 10, 2014)

Mad Cook said:


> I love the idea that you can buy individual sized watermelon. The only ones we see over here are giant sized ones as big as or bigger than your head. Not a viable proposition when you are the only one who eats watermelon.


Before I moved to Europe in 1969, I hadn't seen a watermelon smaller than the one this slice came from:


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## Dawgluver (May 10, 2014)

Mad Cook said:


> I love the idea that you can buy individual sized watermelon. The only ones we see over here are giant sized ones as big as or bigger than your head. Not a viable proposition when you are the only one who eats watermelon.




I've dehydrated watermelon, the end result tastes like cotton candy.  Also, it makes a nice drink when pureed and paired with lemon or lime juice and a sweetener.  The juice freezes well too.


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## GotGarlic (May 10, 2014)

Dawgluver said:


> I've dehydrated watermelon, the end result tastes like cotton candy.  Also, it makes a nice drink when pureed and paired with lemon or lime juice and a sweetener.  The juice freezes well too.



And pickled watermelon rinds! Yum!


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## Dawgluver (May 10, 2014)

GotGarlic said:


> And pickled watermelon rinds! Yum!




Indeed!


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## Whiskadoodle (May 10, 2014)

GotGarlic said:


> And pickled watermelon rinds! Yum!


 

+3


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## Addie (May 10, 2014)

Mad Cook said:


> I love the idea that you can buy individual sized watermelon. The only ones we see over here are giant sized ones as big as or bigger than your head. Not a viable proposition when you are the only one who eats watermelon.



The individual size ones are a little bit smaller than a soccer ball. Just enough for one person.


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## Cooking Goddess (May 10, 2014)

I prefer buying the wedges of watermelon in the store. Just enough for a couple days, plus I can sniff the melon. If it smells a little like watermelon through the plastic wrap I know it will taste good. Himself hates being with me in the produce section. If it's a fruit or veggie that's supposed to smell like something I'll be sniffing till I find one that actually smells like what I'm holding. And I swear I can smell "green" when it comes to stone fruits. Can't describe the smell, but I know it when I smell it.


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## Addie (May 10, 2014)

Cooking Goddess said:


> I prefer buying the wedges of watermelon in the store. Just enough for a couple days, plus I can sniff the melon. If it smells a little like watermelon through the plastic wrap I know it will taste good. Himself hates being with me in the produce section. If it's a fruit or veggie that's supposed to smell like something I'll be sniffing till I find one that actually smells like what I'm holding. And I swear I can smell "green" when it comes to stone fruits. Can't describe the smell, but I know it when I smell it.



When I worked at The Western Washington Fair with my 4-H kids, the produce trucks were pulling into the produce building. The peach truck arrived first. You could smell those peaches clear across the compound. Each time a new truck pulled in and started to unload, you could smell their fruit. Plums, apples, , etc. A little heady for a fruit lover. I did make sure I got a couple of the peaches. Juice running down my arm. I went back to the farmer with the pits. I offered to trade him two pits for two more peaches. I ended up with four more peaches and got to keep the pits.


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## Mad Cook (May 11, 2014)

GotGarlic said:


> And pickled watermelon rinds! Yum!


Funny you should say that I was only looking at a recipe for pickled melon rinds the other day. Waste not want not.


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## Mad Cook (May 11, 2014)

taxlady said:


> Before I moved to Europe in 1969, I hadn't seen a watermelon smaller than the one this slice came from:


That took me back. When I was a very little girl I had a book with an hand coloured illustration of a black child sitting in the melon patch eating a huge slice of w/melon like that one. (Not very PC in this modern age.) Can't remember what it was called but the upshot was that the child ate too much w/melon and was sick. A salutary tale to advise the reader of the results of greed.


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## Roll_Bones (May 13, 2014)

Addie said:


> These 'melons have no taste so early in the season. But I need the fluids. But I made a discovery this morning. I had cut one in half the other day and failed to place a piece of plastic over the half I wasn't going to eat right away. Today I went to eat it and a lot of the fluid had evaporated and the top of the cut was very dry. Hmmm. It tasted like watermelon should



Like Emeril says. "Evaporation leads to concentration".  I kinda thought it sounded juvenile as its apparent what evaporation does.

Why watermelon for fluid intake?  Water costs much less.


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## cave76 (May 13, 2014)

Roll_Bones said:


> Why watermelon for fluid intake?  Water costs much less.



I don't know why others might do that----- but it certainly tastes better than the water out of my tap.  Plus there's probably other vitamins/minerals etc that a watermelon has that water doesn't, sorta a twofer.

If a person never drinks tap water and drinks only bottled water----then the costs get closer to each other.

I'm really particular about the taste of my water after having lived on ranches for decades with our own spring water. So.......


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## Addie (May 13, 2014)

Roll_Bones said:


> Like Emeril says. "Evaporation leads to concentration".  I kinda thought it sounded juvenile as its apparent what evaporation does.
> 
> Why watermelon for fluid intake?  Water costs much less.



Sure it does. But it is never a bargain if you never use it. I don't like water. Never have liked water. And it has nothing to do with the taste of our water. I just don't like water. The only time I am tempted to drink water is when it is running over some rocks out in the wild and is ice cold. And I live in the city. So you know what the chances of that happening.


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## PrincessFiona60 (May 13, 2014)

Had my first (of the season) Personal watermelon tonight...yum!!!


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## Addie (May 13, 2014)

Aside from the fluids that you take in, a lot of folks don't realize that there are nutrients in watermelon. 


Something for both men and women. 

Five Reasons to Eat Watermelon


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## LPBeier (May 14, 2014)

I went to buy a small watermelon yesterday (my first of the year) and they were all out.  I was so disappointed.  It is my favourite fruit of any kind.  They are getting more in tomorrow.


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## mmyap (May 15, 2014)

Addie said:


> When I worked at The Western Washington Fair with my 4-H kids, the produce trucks were pulling into the produce building. The peach truck arrived first. You could smell those peaches clear across the compound. Each time a new truck pulled in and started to unload, you could smell their fruit. Plums, apples, , etc. A little heady for a fruit lover. I did make sure I got a couple of the peaches. Juice running down my arm. I went back to the farmer with the pits. I offered to trade him two pits for two more peaches. I ended up with four more peaches and got to keep the pits.


 
I lived in California for a time when I was a kid and I remember when the strawberries ripened.  If the window on your car was rolled down and you drove through the strawberries fields the scent was heavenly.  Now half the time I buy strawberries in the grocery store they have no smell.  And yes, I do stand in the middle of the produce section sticking my nose next to the strawberry tubs.  Usually griping at whoever I'm with about "....driving through the strawberry fields.....strawberries are supposed to have a smell, dangit!"....yada, yada.


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## mmyap (May 15, 2014)

We have a local watermelon called a Thai watermelon. It's about the size of a bowling ball. Super sweet and delicious with a very thin rind. We also have a Maui Gold Pineapple that is much smaller then the South American variety. Also exceptional.


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## Addie (May 15, 2014)

mmyap said:


> I lived in California for a time when I was a kid and I remember when the strawberries ripened.  If the window on your car was rolled down and you drove through the strawberries fields the scent was heavenly.  Now half the time I buy strawberries in the grocery store they have no smell.  And yes, I do stand in the middle of the produce section sticking my nose next to the strawberry tubs.  Usually griping at whoever I'm with about "....driving through the strawberry fields.....strawberries are supposed to have a smell, dangit!"....yada, yada.



I often think that as great as our transportation system is, it has done more damage to our food source than help it. We import so much of our food now, that it is picked long before it is ripe and ready to eat. As a result, all the aroma of the foods is lost.


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## Dawgluver (May 15, 2014)

We live in melon country here, and I still can't find personal watermelons.  

In Mexico, in the summer, they sell a tiny local pineapple that's called Miel (honey), and it's absolutely fantastic.  You have to get to the grocery store early when they come in, and you will find the locals all ripping the top leaves off the Miel, as they are weighed at the counter and charged accordingly.  I have never had such a sweet and delicious pineapple.


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