Tickled Pink: A Watermelon Menu

The return of long summer hikes and muggy afternoons typically inspires a change in our eating habits. After scarfing heaping piles of holiday ham and starchy casseroles during our hip-rounding hibernation, it’s a relief for our stomachs and minds to embrace the season’s bounty when the sunshine pushes fresh fruit from the earth and into our hands.

While the best watermelons sound hollow when tapped, there’s plenty of substance—in both character and stature—to this gargantuan fruit. Its delicious pink flesh is a great reward after labor-intensive summer activities such as lugging one across the park to find a perfect picnic spot, and it’s a juicy recompense for figuring out how to crack through the tough rind when you’ve forgotten a knife (a coin and a lot of patience will eventually get you there). Watermelons allow us