trick: watermelon trees

Ahh, summer - Mr. Mari's favorite season. Being able to wear shorts and eat endless amounts of amazing tomatoes are two of his most favorite things. Me, I love the bounty of the farmers market - especially all the amazing stone fruits and melons - I just don't gravitate towards the giant watermelon bins. It's not that I don't enjoy watermelon's watery sweetness and sucking its juices from the crushed cellulose bites as fast as I can, I just don't like an "Interruption of Texture" and getting that same watery sweetness all over my face as I get to the bottom of each wedge.

Watermelon to me is all about its crisp flesh, biting through wafer thin walls, releasing the captive summer nectar. When I hit a seed with my teeth, my voraciousness, my hunger to free the juice as quickly as possible, is frustrated by slimy thin speed bumps. Not being able to complete a bite by a 16th of an inch is highly unsatisfying. I even find the white seeds a little annoying but I've given in to accepting those because I enjoy the flavor of watermelon so much.

The second problem listed was made irrelevant by my dad who showed me this face saving trick. Instead of leaving the entire rind on each piece, trim away most of it, keeping only a tiny tree stump in the middle. The handle's plenty big and sturdy enough to wield, so there's no sticky juice face to clean up, leaving plenty of time to have some good ol' summertime fun.