Valley Bounty, August 31: Melons

The short season for local melons won’t last far into September. Look now for luscious local cantaloupes, honeydews, and watermelons at farmers’ markets and farmstands. They come in lots of colors and sizes, and make a good sweet treat for these end-of-summer days. Try melon in a smoothie or popsicle, or make fruit salad of melons, peaches, and plums with a little bit of chopped mint or basil. 

 Web Extras

Sources

CISA’s list of melon producers and farmstands selling melon is here.

Recipes

Town Farm provides a recipe for Cantaloupe Tarragon Ice Pops.

Mountain View Farm’s Watermelon and Cucumber Gazpacho.

Preserving

I would never have thought of preserving melons in any way, but it turns out you can dehydrate melon fairly easily.  The resulting chewy fruit is a little candy-sweet for my taste, but if all the melons in your garden are coming ripe at once, as they tend to do, a food dehydrator can turn a huge pile of melons into a dried fruit in a hurry, and perhaps you’ll love it on your winter oatmeal or granola.

Here’s a recipe for watermelon rind pickles from Red Fire Farm.

CISA’s food preservation resource page is here.