Watermelon always reminds me of the 4th of July. I grew up in a small town in Nevada. Every 4th of July, the whole town gathers at the park for a traditional small town celebration. It’s something so quaint, so patriotic and Americana.


First, there’s the parade. It’s a rag-tag procession of the town’s fire trucks and police cars. A few citizens, including my grandfather, parade their classic cars. Others ride horses or 4-wheelers. The Beatty Miss and Jr. Miss (both of whom were related to me this year) wave from the back of a convertible. And, the Beatty Cowboys dress in period attire and stage fake gun-fights on Main Street.


Down at the park, the day consists of a series of games. There’s the wheelbarrow race, the egg race, the sack race, the three-legged race, the foot race and the egg toss. It’s been family lore that the egg toss has sent many of the men in the family to the proverbial ‘dog house’. When someone in the family brings a new boyfriend or girlfriend, they have to participate in the egg toss. It’s a make it or break it kind of thing.

After all of the ‘races’, there’s the watermelon eating contest. On paper, this sounds like the most ridiculous thing ever. You stand in line, a fireman sprays you off with a firehose, you’re weighed in front of everyone else, you eat as much watermelon as you can in a ridiculous amount of time (I think it’s 10 minutes for adults), are sprayed again (you’re shivering uncontrollably by this point) and weighed again.



Whoever gains the most weight wins.


For an adult–at least an adult woman–it’s pretty counter-intuitive. You want to hose me down in front of all these people? Then I’m going to stuff my face? And the goal is to gain weight? Yeah, I don’t think so.


Besides all of that, most of the people who do a really good job stuffing their faces with watermelon end up losing it all in front of everyone not long after the event. No fun.


As a kid, though, it was my favorite event. I never won or anything, but it was one of those things that was quintessentially 4th of July.

Even now, though I don’t participate, it’s still my favorite event. My family has this technique that we swear works to help you maximize the amount of weight you add without making you get too full. I may get in trouble for giving away family secrets here, but what the technique consists of is grabbing handfuls of watermelon and squeezing the juice into your mouth. Then, you throw the pulp onto the ground (or onto your clothes hoping to add a layer of watermelon to augment your weight). Once you’ve shoveled out one rind, you use that rind as a ‘boat’ for more watermelon. You squeeze the juice into that ‘boat’ and drink it. You’ll hear my family yelling at those who are participating, ‘Make a boat!’ I think it’s only really worked for my uncle, but it’s a bonding experience.


You can see a bit of the watermelon eating contest (and the rest of the festivities) in this super cool video.


A couple of weeks ago, Greenling sent us an enormous watermelon. Other than having a watermelon eating contest, I had no idea what to do with it! I finally found a great, simple recipe that would work for a book club dessert. Served with pineapple coconut gelato, it was a great farewell to Summer.

Watermelon with Basil and Mint

Adapted from epicurious
This recipe called for honeydew and just a little sugar. I (obviously) used watermelon, a lot more lime juice and a lot more sugar.
1 watermelon, cubed
juice of 5 limes (or to taste)
1/2 cup sugar
3 T mint, chopped
3 T basil, chopped
Preparation:
Cube watermelon and place in a large bowl. Add lime juice, sugar and herbs. Mix gently. Refrigerate and allow flavors to meld for about 2 hours.
This could be further broken down to create agua fresca. Or, it would be nicely complemented with a half shot of orange liqueur poured over each serving.

Time: 20 minutes (+ 2 hours for refrigeration)
Serves: 8-10, depending on how big your watermelon is
Drink Pairing: Mojitos or margaritas


Though I failed to ‘make a boat’ with this particular watermelon, the grown-up flavors of this recipe still provided a fair amount of childhood nostalgia (plus it was yummy).