Watermelon and 4th of July are made for each other! They go together like cake and ice cream, or hamburgers and buns, or (you add to this).
Summer barbecues are sure to include this best loved fruit and vegetable. (Yes, watermelons are considered both). From its name you know it is filled with water – 92 percent of it is water so it is a natural thirst quencher. It is native to Africa and was a valuable source of water during hot desert trips. It has lots of other good benefits as well, such as vitamins A, B6 and C, fiber and potassium.
There are more than 500 varieties of watermelon. Some have red flesh, others green and some reddish pink. Most have black seeds and others have white or very light seeds. Some are even called seedless. They really aren’t seedless but the seeds are so tiny and fewer in number than the typical ones.
Watermelons come in different shapes and sizes, too. In fact, some are huge. There is one recorded in the Guinness Book of Records weighing 279 pounds!
I remember a little boy showing off to his mother how strong he was by picking up a gigantic watermelon, only to have it slip out of his hands and smash all over the floor. Ah yes, watermelon memories. Or maybe you have a memory about the time you ate too much watermelon and had a stomach ache. Most watermelon memories are happy ones, though. Perhaps you have memories of eating watermelon with your friends and seeing who can spit the seeds the furthest.
Whichever way you eat watermelon, I hope you have friends and family to share it with on the 4th of July.
