It is not common knowledge but today is National Watermelon Day in the United States. Refreshing, delicious. sweet watermelon. Yum. Why not have celebrate national watermelon day while watermelons are at the peak of their season? They are plentiful and inexpensive right now. I just bought a huge one today for only $1.99!
The following are some great ideas in honor of National Watermelon Day.
Watermelon Lanterns
If you are planning a luau or summer party that will go into the evening hours, you can create dramatic, glowing watermelon lanterns much like a Halloween Jack-O-Lantern – but prettier! Your carved watermelon can be beautiful by day and night. Here are photos showing a carved watermelon that I made before and after turning it into a lantern. You can light your watermelon with a flashlight, or other battery powered light. You might try lighting with battery powered candle type lights. You can even light with a real candle as long as you open up the top or create
holes to allow enough oxygen so that the flame will burn.
Besides carving, there are so many other things you can do with watermelon. Here are a few delicious, fun, unusual and downright silly watermelon ideas you may want to try.
Frozen Watermelon Pops
These refreshing and low-calorie icy treats are perfect for hot summer days.
- Put thick slices of watermelon on a popsicle stick and freeze. OR
- Puree watermelon, pour into a papercup or ice-pop mold, add a popsicle stick and freeze.
Watermelon Cut-Outs
Slice watermelon ½ inch thick and cut with different shape cookie cutters to serve to kids. They’ll love it.
Watermelon Cocktails.
Here are a couple of delicious, refreshing, adult treats.
1. Watermelon Mojitos – Experiment with watermelon juice or puree mixed with a bit of lime juice, sugar or simple syrup, fresh mint and rum. Serve with a lime wedge on the edge of the glass.
2. Watermelon Martinis – Mix fresh watermelon juice or puree with vodka, shake with ice and pour into a martini glass. Garnish with a wedge of watermelon on the rim of the glass.
Unusual and Interesting Watermelon Recipes
Feeling adventurous and want to try out something different? Take a look at 7 recipes that include Watermelon Tomato Appetizers, Sicilian Watermelon Pudding, Watermelon Gazpacho, Watermelon Ginger Punch and even Watermelon Curry. I have not yet tried them myself but they sure sound interesting. You’ll find them here http://www.yumsugar.com/7-Unconventional-Watermelon-Recipes-1832020?page=0,0,0#3
You can also check our an unusual idea for grilling watermelon at http://www.yumsugar.com/Grilled-Watermelon-Salad-Recipe-8945813
Watermelon Hats
Here is a totally silly watermelon helmet made by a fan of the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
If you are curious how the watermelon hat got started you can learn more about the origin of the Saskatchewan Roughriders watermelon hat here – //www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo7KG2vsq3E
Seed Spitting Contest
Having a picnic with seeded watermelon? Have some silly fun with a seed spitting contest. You could reward the contestant that spits their seeds the farthest with a silly watermelon hat.
Complete Watermelon Themed Summer Party
If you were so inspired, you could even throw a whole watermelon themed summer party and use all of the watermelon ideas above. Add a watermelon carving contest and you could light the carved watermelons as lanterns when the sun sets.
Whether you simply enjoy a slice of watermelon or are inspired to try any of the ideas above sometime soon, I wish you a Happy “National Watermelon Day”!
Ms. Nita thanks for the recipes. I,m going to try it.
I need to carve a melon for a baby shower. How far in advance can I do this? I was hoping to carve on a Wed eve for a Saturday shower. Any advice for me?
Thanks so much and I can’t wait to try to watermelon mojito!
For best results I recommend that you make your baby carraige the day of or the day before your party. If you make it days before, the melon rind wil dry out and the fruit salad will get watery. If you make it the day before, you can keep the rind moist by covering with a damp paper towel and wrapping in plastic. Then store in the frig. Have fun with making your carraige!
Thanks! did you know watermelon has protein?
Yes!!!!!
Really?! I did not know that.
Fruits, vegetables and greens (spinach, kale, collard greens…) have proteins
hi, where can i buy the tools for carving. any suggestions where or what site can i go. i’m interested to learn how to carve.thanks for your ideas in creating about fruits and vegetables carvings.
Right now, I offer a set of vegetable fruit carving lessons for beginners called Hearts and Roses. I deliver them on DVD and you get instant access to the same videos online. You can learn more by clicking the link below.
//www.vegetablefruitcarving.com/HeartRoses.html
I also offer the tools for making the radish bouquet that I demonstrate in my free lesson. You can learn more about that at the link below.
//www.vegetablefruitcarving.com/u_cutter_fruit_carving_tool.html
Within the next few weeks, I will be offering new lessons and fruit carving knife sets. I’ll keep you posted.
If you want to see a quick video showing some of the carving projects that I will be teaching in my upcoming videos. You can see the sneak preview at //www.vegetablefruitcarving.com/sneakpreview.html
Thanks for your interest.
Hi Nita, The watermelons look great I need to learn slowly how to carve them. I have a lot of watermelon baskets that I do small and large but the lanterns patterns are hard for me to do. thanks for sending the ideas.
Just thought i would like to say thanks, Why you may ask, then let me explain…
I live in England, so i have been finding it hard to find carving help and tools, i have waisted much cash and time buying books that dont help much and buying tools that dont realy do the job. Then i stumbled on your site and took a look at one of your free lessons, i was sceptical at first, thinking that this was just a nother money making site out to get your cash, but the more i watched the more i realised this was not the case. Your advice is fantastic, its at the perfect pace, i have bought some of your lessons and i love them, they are so helpful, when you are teaching us how to do something, you also point out what mistakes people who are learning make, and yes before i watched your lessons i made them all. Your videos have saved me so much learning time and my skills have increased so much i could just give you a big hug to say thanks. all the products you reccomend do the job, and one good thing is you tell us the reasons why you reccomend them. if i had found your tools first i would have saved hundreds of pounds.
So once again Nita abig thankyou and keep those lessons comming.
i give full permission if you want to use any part of this as a testimonial to your fantastic work.
happy days
Steve
Thank so much Steven for your kind words. It’s really gratifying for me to hear about your positive experience.
When I first created my lessons and my website, I had all those things in mind. I wanted to save others the expense of trial and error that I went through when I was learning. I had wasted $$ on lousy tools and ineffective books, too. I did not quite understand how to do many of the things I saw in books. I find books far more useful after the basics are taught by showing how. That is why I show how in video form.
I wanted to save people time by showing what common mistakes are and how to avoid or fix them. I wanted to make it easy and cost effective for people to get the right tools.
So, I thank you for your note that tells me that I succeeded in doing what I originally set out to do. It makes me feel good to hear how happy you are with my website, lessons and tools. I’ll be continuing to come up with new ideas and lessons.
Happy Carving! :~)