July 2010 Newsletter
Food focus: Watermelon
We know we love it, so sweet and juicy and
thirst quenching. And also nutritious!
Watermelon has lots of vitamin C and vitamin A and lycopene – so you
don’t have to eat tomatoes, if you don't want to. Get your lycopene this way, if you think that
it will help ward off cancer. Whether or
not this anti-oxidant will do that for you, it does make the watermelon a
pretty pink.
Furthermore, the Environmental Working Group (www.ewg.org) gives watermelon a pretty good
rating on the pesticide scale, unlike the rind-less fruit like apples, pears,
peaches, and berries, which you should try to buy organic.
Have
you ever eaten the seeds? It's perhaps
more tempting to regain childhood and spit them at the nearest person. However, if you forego that pleasure and chew
them very well, they can help with constipation and high blood pressure. To accomplish that, I fear you’d have to do a
lot of chewing. Perhaps easier would be
to dry them, crush them, and then infuse them in hot water for a soothing
drink.
After eating the fruit, chewing or
infusing the seeds, what can you do with the rind? Pickle it, of course! (Better to have an organic watermelon.) To find out how, see the recipe
below. You will feel like the very
model of the thrifty home-maker who throws nothing away.
After eating the fruit, chewing or
infusing the seeds, what can you do with the rind? Pickle it, of course! (Be sure you have an organic watermelon.) To find out how, see the recipe below. You will feel like the very model of the
thrifty home-maker, throwing nothing away.
Recipe of the Month: Pickled
Watermelon Rind
Ingredients
-
Watermelon
rind, 2 cups of diced after paring
-
Brine:
cool, previously boiled tap water and sea salt, one tablespoon salt to 1 cup of
water
-
Roughly
calculated quantities: ¼ of a 13 lb. melon à 2.5 cups of diced rind, needing 1.5 cups of brine.
Recipe
-
Pare
off all green and all pink.
-
Dice
into small cubes (the size of dice!)
-
Pack
them into a wide-mouthed glass or ceramic jar.
-
Pour
in the brine to cover them well.
-
Place
a glass or jar so that it wedges the cubes under water.
-
Cover
the whole apparatus with a cloth to keep off flies.
-
Store
at room temperature (in the 70’sF) undisturbed.
-
Taste
the pickles after 3 days, 4 days, and so on, till you like. the degree of
sourness. At that point, close the lid
and put the jar in the fridge, ready for all occasions. Eat this within 2 months.
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