An Easy Way to Cut a Watermelon

What’s summer without a sweet, red watermelon?

Did you know watermelons are both a vegetable and a fruit? They are part of the cucumber and squash family.

Watermelons contain 92% water, lots of vitamin A and C and are a good source of potassium. They contain no fat or cholesterol.

There are more than 1200 verities of watermelons grown worldwide; wherever they are, bees must pollinate the flowers of the plant in order for a watermelon to grow.

Did you know every part of the watermelon is edible? Even the rind is. I never tried it (I give the rind to the chickens), but I found this recipe for pickled watermelon rind. Sounds interesting.

So you see… we love watermelons around here. Watermelons are the perfect summer treat (I love eating it with my homemade feta cheese!)

There are many options when it comes to slicing up a watermelon… I love to use this method my dad taught me a while ago. If you ask me, my dad is not only the most amazing man in the world but also a professional watermelon handler, if there is such a title.

My parents love to entertain, I am talking parties of 30-40 people on a monthly basis, and during the summer, watermelons are the main fruit served. I think the second fridge in their garage was placed there mainly for the purpose of cooling watermelons!

Anyway, when I have or get the privilege of knowing or meeting a professional, I listen closely…

Start with a beautiful watermelon. My dad knows how to choose them but I could never figure out how he does that. He taps on them and listens to the sound it makes but I can’t really figure out what he is trying to hear.

Anyway, I just choose a pretty one and hope it’s a good one.

Place it on a cutting board…

And cut off one end with a sharp knife. Then turn it and cut the other end off too, unless you want to use only half watermelon. If this is the case, then cut it in the middle and store the half with the end still on in the fridge.

Next, place the watermelon upright on the cutting board and start cutting the rind off from top to bottom.

The first cut might be a bit hard, but the next ones will be easy. Just keep going around until all the rind is removed.

Now you can go back and make sure you didn’t leave areas with too much of the white stuff that is not really fun to eat.

Ta-da! beautiful, isn’t it? From here, you can go ahead and be as creative as you want. You can slice it crosswise and use cookie cutters to make shapes (I bet my kids will love this idea), you can make big slices, thin or thick… I usually just make smaller squares that are easy to stick in your mouth.

I slice it lengthwise…

Like so…

And then each piece into smaller cubes.

The kids ate a whole lot of it for dessert the other day and pooped it all a day later.

Sorry, I had to share.

A watermelon will do that to you…. The sharing and the pooping.

Anyways, I hope you are having a great summer, full of picnics and cool, juicy, healthy, red watermelons!

Feel free to share with me how you cut your watermelon in the comments bellow.