When I was a kid, we knew a guy who grew yellow watermelons, and they were so sweet and delicious. For years, I’ve tried to find another source. I’ve asked about them at every fruit stand in my area, and no one ever had them.
Yesterday, I was at a produce stand I’d never visited before for a completely non-yellow-watermelon-related mission, and I discovered a bin of these beauties. Yellow watermelons are just as awesome as I remember.
We’re eating this one sliced up and will convert the other to aguas frescas. Please feel free to discuss whatever.
raven
Yaller.
gogol's wife
Very pretty.
smedley the uncertain
Seed saving??
Enjoy.
MattF
I’ll have to ask about that at my local farmer’s market.
And also, for the record, FYWP for audio autoplay.
raven
“The ‘Yellow Crimson’ has a yellow-colored flesh. It has been described as sweeter and more honey-flavored than the more popular red-flesh watermelon.”
SuperHrefna
What is your Agua Fresca recipe, Betty? I love watermelon.
Wag
@smedley the uncertain:
What Smedley said. Save the seeds!
R-Jud
Thank you for reminding me that I have a “baby” watermelon in the fridge. Juice a cup of chunks with a lime and some ginger = magic.
Yatsuno
WASSERMELON!!! Yeah it’s not really nifty auf Deutsch.
Betty Cracker
@SuperHrefna: I cut the watermelon into chunks and puree it in a blender, then strain the juice into a bowl (using a spoon to squeeze the juice through a sieve). Add about half a cup of lime juice to the mixture, then add a cup of water and a cup of club soda. If you’ve got a really sweet melon like the one above, you may not need to add honey or sugar, but taste it and make your decision. I generally pour the finished product into a pitcher with ice and add a few sprigs of mint. If you’re a drinking man/woman, it’s good with vodka.
Betty Cracker
@R-Jud: Never thought of adding ginger to the juice — gonna have to try that!
MattF
@Betty Cracker: I’m reminded of the Southern Lady who informed me one night that the secret ingredient in potato salad is vodka.
Rosalita
gorgeous color! can you hold on to some seeds and try to grow your own?
Patricia Kayden
Never even knew there was such a thing as yellow watermelon. Need to look around at local fresh food stands for them.
SuperHrefna
@Betty Cracker: Ooh, thanks! That sounds so delicious, I will have to give it a try.
Betty Cracker
@Rosalita: Gonna see if the mister will give it a shot. (I can’t even grow an air fern.)
Roger Moore
I just started a batch of gazpacho. My favorite recipe for using stale bread, at least in the summer. In the winter, bread pudding is better.
R-Jud
@Betty Cracker: Only add a little ginger at a time, though, or you will feel the burn. Both when you drink it and, uh, later on.
gbear
Yeah, somebody else put that bullet in that gun! I’m a responsible gun seller! I wonder if he pointed the gun at the customer during the previous 20 demonstrations…
aimai
@Betty Cracker: I make ginger, lime, and cardamom syrups to mix with drinks all the time in the summer. And sometimes I just mix ground cardamom into things if I don’t have time to make a simple syrup and I’m planning on mixing it into a sweet juice anyway.
MikeJ
@gbear: Even in the incredibly unlikely event that some random person was cruising the show looking for unattended guns(!) to load (with the correct caliber on hand too), even if you believe all that, why would he not rack it for this demo? Why would he just not pull the fucking trigger? I was always taught that every gun is always loaded, even if you just unloaded it and double checked it yourself, and you never, ever pull the trigger unless you want something to die.
shelley
On Sarah Moulton’s show today, she had a similar recipe for a summer cooler. Puree the melon, strain and freeze in ice cube trays. Use the cubes with fruit juice of your choice (no dilution of the drink) and the booze of your choice (hers: vodka) Why not just freeze watermelon cubes to use in the drink, she asks? They get too icy. Pureed, they have a much better texture.
SuperHrefna
@aimai: Can I beg for recipes again? I adore cardamom.
PurpleGirl
OT: For those you like the Endeavor stories about young Morse, there is one on PBS Masterpiece Theater tonight. Doesn’t matter to me if it’s new or not, it’s young Morse.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@gbear:
There’s no “somehow the gun was loaded.” I was taught from age of twelve to always assume that the gun was loaded until you pointed it at the sky and cleared it to make sure it wasn’t. It’s that fucking simple.
WaterGirl
@R-Jud: I was at a new year’s eve party years ago, and someone brought out some yummy jalapeño pepper thing, and two of us went to town. Somebody said “you’ll regret that tomorrow’ and I had no idea what they meant.
Ouch.
So when you say just a little ginger… how much would you start with?
PurpleGirl
HBM @ 25: When I began target shooting with my friends, I was taught to never leave the gun loaded when not at the range but to always assume it was loaded and to check that out. They had bought me a .22 Marlin rifle with a 17 round tubular magazine. The range my friends took me to in Westchester Cty had signs all over the place that you could only load 10 rounds at a time, no matter what and they had staff on hand to watch everyone.
gogol's wife
@PurpleGirl:
It’s new. Bring it on!
Corner Stone
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
Arrrgh, matey! Now I knows who to thank for me eye patch!
Corner Stone
Sigh. No.
Elizabelle
That watermelon looks especially delicious against that kitchen tile!
AB
Those are delicious, but eat them promptly. When they go bad, they are HORRIFIC.
Elizabelle
@SuperHrefna:
I acquired a bottle of rose water (have not made your yam salad yet) and have been putting a drop or two in my martini instead of dry vermouth.
It’s lovely. Maybe not for everybody, but a nice difference.
SiubhanDuinne
@AB:
Watermelon goes bad? I figured it always disappeared so fast, no one would ever have a chance to find out.
geg6
Yummy! Yellow watermelons are delicious and have a honey-like sweetness.
I spent most of my day washing the ceiling, walls, woodwork and tile of the bathroom in preparation for painting. Our floor and wall tiles are black and white and I just bought some new towels, shower curtain and rugs in different shades of purple and gray/silver. I’m painting the walls a light purple and the woodwork a very light gray. It should take me a day or two to get that done and then I’m using the rest of my week off to loll around my sisters’ pools and hang around with my man, who has a long weekend next weekend. We saw a dog being walked at the Humane Society across the street from our house that John was interested in maybe going over to check out. Just what I need, another dog. Oh well. I’m a dog person, after all. :-)
gbear
@Corner Stone: If he hadn’t had to do those damned background checks, no one would have gotten hurt.
Old Dan and Little Ann
The watermelon’s not yellow, it’s chicken.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@PurpleGirl:
My uncle gave me his 1905 Savage single shot, bolt action .22 rifle when I was twelve. He taught me gun safety without ever chambering a round. So, I was a .22 kid when we lived up in Medford, Oregon. On Saturdays a few of us would get together and ride our bicycles over to the town dump to shoot at rats. We pedaled through town with our .22s square across the handlebars. In most of our baskets was a brown paper bag containing a peanut butter and jelly sandwich wrapped in wax paper along with a couple of boxes of .22 LR. The people of Medford heartily approved, no cop ever looked at us twice.
Why is it that some things get so much better at the same time that other things are getting so much worse? Am I just too old or what?
Dave
Ate yellow watermelon as a kid growing up in Texas, haven’t been able to find them since. Good for you, Betty! Love the taste, especially compared to red.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Old Dan and Little Ann:
I don’t know whether to be more amused by the fact that you worked in the “Tombstone Blues” or the fact that I instantaneously got it.
ETA: Okay, both of the above.
jeffreyw
We bought one a couple a years ago at a farmer’s market. Fabulous!
Botsplainer
Wife made me get a pedicure with her today, first time ever. Something about my nasty, scaly feet shredding sheets and scratching up her legs and feet.
It was pretty nice, save for the grossness from the cheese grater they used to take off the quarter inch of callouses…
Roger Moore
@gbear:
So his excuse is that he left the gun sitting where random people could grab it without his noticing? Most responsible gun owner ever!
gerry bucko
Found one Saturday in Hershey Pa on Route 39 at Pumpkin World.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Botsplainer:
We know what you’re doin’, we know what you’re doin’, we know what you’re doin’,
Pogonip
@SiubhanDuinne: It does. I had cut up some chunks and was then gone for a few days on a family emergency. What I came back to was just appalling. There’s a reason watermelon wine is not popular.
Old Dan and Little Ann
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: It’s the first thing that popped into my head. Well done. : )
SuperHrefna
@Elizabelle: mmm! Sounds so good. Rosewater is bliss.
rikyrah
I have never seen a yellow watermelon.
NotMax
Been 40 years since last made a Hoochmelon. Now kind of want to revive the practice.
(Example) If you can fit upright the whole shebang into the fridge, leave it there for a minimum of a full day. Otherwise, leave sitting out in a cool and shady spot* for about a day (again, upright), then remove the bottle of vodka, insert the melon plug previously cut out in order to insert the bottle, and refrigerate overnight or at the least until very cold.
*Come to think of it, these days there are those icy pack thingies one can keep in the freezer – one could conceivably strap a couple of those around the melon if it is left standing outside the fridge if desired, and replace as necessary.
Pogonip
I read the Ted Cruz article and from it extracted two salient points.
1). A lot of college professors seem to equate “loud and obnoxious” with “brilliant.”. I guess I’ll keep that in mind if I ever take another class.
2). Mrs. Cruz stays home in Houston with the younguns, and therefore liberals can stop worrying about him becoming president. His candidacy will implode when he’s caught in a wide stance somewhere.
There’s a whole lot of wide stance-ing going on out there. A fellow I know who used to spend a lot of time in gay bars says that although he disn’t keep an exact count, at least half the guys who hit on him were wearing wedding rings. Couldn’t even be bothered to take them off. (He sent such men packing on the reasonable grounds that “If his wife couldn’t trust him, why should I?”)
Mnemosyne
@MattF:
My favorite Caesar potato salad recipe includes three tablespoons of vermouth. You toss the hot potatoes in it so they absorb the flavor.
WaterGirl
Now I want watermelon.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@NotMax:
Dang. I used to make something similar when I was out runnin’. Take one of those melon bombs to the beach and I guarantee sunburn.Thanks for reminding me of those times. In return, I offer you Strawberries and Wine.
Pogonip
@WaterGirl: I can always eat watermelon. One of my favorite fruits. And Miss Manners is on board; she has endorsed seed-spitting contests in one of her books. Yay watermelon!
gbear
@Pogonip: Here’s the song for those husbands. I’t’s pretty common to get hit on by married guys, and they’re usually the ones who are completely horrified by same-sex marriage and are fighting it every step of the way. They’re so freakin closeted.
Amir Khalid
@Pogonip:
Ted Cruz article?
WereBear
@PurpleGirl: I just got into those! Fun.
gbear
@gbear: I should include a qualifier that it hasn’t happened to me for a while because 1) I stopped going to bars and 2) I’m not all that hunky any more.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Amir Khalid:
I believe it’s a New Yorker article mentioned earlier today (which apparently is not on line).
NotMax
@Higgs Boson’s Mate
Back when we had access to a walk-in cooler, let one of those sit with the bottle upended for an extra-long time. May have been a week, but was probably more like four days.
Ended up with perfectly edible but pale, nearly white-colored watermelon.
And thanks for that recipe – shall have to try that. Almost never have white wine in the larder, so thinking of substituting maybe a rainwater madeira or even a tawny port…
Chickamin Slam
@NotMax: Spiked watermelon. One of my geology professors would bring one along on summer quarter field trips.
As for yellow waterman. My grandmother would find these at some out of the way store and bring them back. I think she also ate some when she visited relatives in Tampa. I should see if I can locate these.
SiubhanDuinne
@Amir Khalid:
From The New Yorker. Haven’t read it yet but am about to.
WaterGirl
@Pogonip: No watermelon at the farmers market yet, so I am sad. I never buy watermelon at the grocery store, but now I might have to make an exception.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@NotMax:
Cool! So many wines and I don’t know a thing about wine. I drank Thunderbird, man.
Corner Stone
@gbear: Oh, don’t sell yourself short, you big hunk o man!
Corner Stone
@Botsplainer:
Nothing wrong with a pedicure, I guess. But what’s this “made me” business?
Burnspbesq
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
The only thing worse than T-Bird was Boone’s Farm Apple Wine. I think about 10 percent of the girls in my high school class have no memory of losing their virginity because they were plastered on that stuff. Yeah, the summer of 1972 was pretty much a blur.
gbear
Jesus.
NotMax
@Higgs Boson’s Mate
That you can remember it is a testament to your fortitude.
I have nothing whatsoever against white wines (excepting that idiosyncratic stuff called white zinfandel – that’s barely fit for any worthwhile purpose). Just prefer the fuller body of a red when am drinking wine.
If it makes the waiter blanch should I order a red along with fish, well, that’s just a bonus.
gbear
@Burnspbesq: 1972 was the prime Boone’s Farm Apple era, especially if you were in or about to graduate from high school. I don’t know if I ever drank it without getting sick.
Botsplainer
@Corner Stone:
She’s been after me about my scaly feet for years, but I’m a cheap fuck who hates spending money on grooming. I took her to the nail place today because she wanted one as a post-surgery perk, and shamed me into it at the counter.
It was a little painful at times, but we’re talking 5 decades of benign neglect, so it wasn’t bad. They want me back in two weeks; after that, monthly.
NotMax
@Burnspbesq
The bottom of the barrel was a very crowded place in those days of yore.
Mad Dog 20/20
Night Train
Ripple
and the beat went on…
PurpleGirl
Okay, who remembers malt duck?
My usual drinks of choice during college were rum & coke, a Black & Tan, or Bass Ale. One boyfriend was trying malt duck and we had it a couple of times. Thank the goddess it went away.
WaterGirl
@gbear:
It would be awful to see someone shot and killed, blood and brains and guts splattered all over the windshield, I would imagine.
Not so difficult, apparently, since they were immediately able to come up with a new date for the show.
Amir Khalid
@SiubhanDuinne:
Thanks. I came away from that article more convinced than ever that Ted Cruz is unfit for the US Senate, never mind the presidency.
Pogonip
@Amir Khalid: It was mentioned in another Balloon Juice article, don’t recall which one. The Cruz article is new, so if you google something like “Ted Cruz New Yorker profile” I bet it’ll pop right up.
Happy Ramadan and should we stop blathering about tasty watermelon till you can eat again?
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
Second, co-sign, ditto, this, QFT. The very concept of “white Zinfandel” is an abomination.
tybee
@PurpleGirl:
i remember cold duck.
SiubhanDuinne
@PurpleGirl:
My first alcoholic drink (I was a junior in HS, so 1958-59) was bourbon and Coke.
Since that night, I have never been able to tolerate either bourbon or Coca-Cola. I don’t care what they’re mixed with.
gogol's wife
@Burnspbesq:
It’s always time for the James Mason Thunderbird commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xY7mBQrzXU
SiubhanDuinne
@Amir Khalid:
He is scary.
burnspbesq
@gbear:
When it was my turn to provision the party, I always made sure there was enough beer so that I was never forced to resort to Boone’s Farm. Would rather have drunk Drano.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: My puppy was hit by a car and died when I was 21, and with the infinite wisdom that comes with that age, my friends took me out to get drunk. I had 13 drinks, some combination of 7-and 7 (seagrans 7 & 7-up) and canadian club with 7-up. I had the dry heaves for 2 days.
About a decade later, I tended bar for a year when my mother was dying (just out of grad school, didn’t want a real job while i was going through that and driving back and forth all the time). I had to kind of hold my breath whenever anyone ordered any drink with any of those brown liquors.
burnspbesq
@NotMax:
You forgot Manischewitz Cream White Concord. And some pretty horrendous wine-and-fruit-juice things in twist-off bottles that tried to pass as sangria.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: I dated a guy whose nickname was Mad Dog, for obvious reasons.
another Holocene human
Smoke Signals restaurant in Lake Placid does one thing week–cooking meats in a smoker. Okay, two things: their drink selections, beers on tap, local wines by the glass, scotches, are awesome. Everything else is a cluster fuck. Avoid their salads, sauces, and sides. In our case the service was horrible too (rookie server I think). Mayo in tsatsiki sauce? St Nicolas wept. Pray I don’t puke it up. And for the record real nc bbq sauce is not made with a tomato ketchup base.
And coconut rice is not made by mixing dried coconut shreds into Uncle Ben’s. I know the end result contains coconut and rice but that does not make it coconut rice.
Yelp, you steered me wrong.
gbear
@WaterGirl: Hopefully it wasn’t Mad Dog Vachon.
? Martin
The ever competent Mississippi GOP keeps illustrating why they should be in charge of government:
Hinds County GOP chairman Pete Perry arrested for DUI
WaterGirl
@gbear: I laughed out loud when I saw the photo!
My boyfriend’s drink of choice was Mad Dog 20/20, of course.
Edit: couldn’t really see the article, as I am over my limit with the NYT this month.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@WaterGirl:
The only drawback I ever found with MD 20-20 was that it made me want to tear off my clothes and howl at the moon. Well, there were the day-after headaches too.
low-tech cyclist
Betty – as you know, I’m no stranger to your general area, so where is this fruit stand?? If you don’t mind terribly, please give enough info to locate it. Never had yellow watermelon. Must try!
Betty Cracker
@gbear: Boones Farm Strawberry Hill was all the rage when I was in high school in the 80s. Vile, revolting shit it was.
@WaterGirl: I’m still unable to bear the smell of Southern Comfort from a teenage binge drinking incident in which I consumed and then yerked up great quantities of the heinous concoction. It is one of three liquors I use in my eggnog recipe — but that’s the only use I ever have for it. Nasty stuff.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: I use brandy in exactly one thing: brandy alexanders. The kind you make with ice cream. Those evoke memories of the cocktail parties my parents threw in the 1960s, where they served brandy alexanders and martinis.
As for eggnog, I think that’s why I was so thrilled to see recipes for Puerto Rican eggnog (Coquito) here. No brandy – they use rum instead. I love it – have you tried it?
sacrablue
@burnspbesq: Perfect with gefilte fish, I presume?
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
Oh dear. I’m sorry about all of that. The puppy, the appalling drinks, the aftermath.
catclub
@another Holocene human:
I blame the user ( you) for that. Expecting good southern food in upstate NY is not particularly reasonable. It might happen, but that would be luck.
Plus, Lexington BBQ does not have any added BBQ sauce anyway, so you must be referring to something you call NC BBQ, but probably isn’t.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: Thanks for that. Arrow was a once-in-a-lifetime dog, even though she only made it to 9 months old. When we went for walks, she preferred to carry the handle of the leash in her mouth.
She was named Arrow after “Me and My Arrow” by Harry Nielson
Me and my Arrow
straighter than narrow
where ever we go
everyone knows
it’s me and my Arrow
She loved alcohol and would knock over people’s drinks at parties so she could lap them up. I have a great photo of her with me at my 21st birthday party. Happy memories, although losing her was surely the biggest loss I had ever had in my life, up to that time.
Edit: I’ll have to put up a photo of her sometime. She was the most beautiful cocker spaniel ever. Sorry, Raven! :-)
burnspbesq
@sacrablue:
Perfect with viruses. I shared a bottle at a concert in NYC the summer between junior and senior years, got mono, and missed the first three weeks of school.
PurpleGirl
@catclub: My paralegal supervisor was working on a case in NC and was told the BBQ there was great. She was expecting something tomato based and was unpleasantly surprised when it was white meat (pork) with a vinegar based sauce. Ten years later she was still telling the story as if it happened yesterday. And she always exclaimed “who would have thought it was so different?”
schrodinger's cat
@Pogonip: I may be missing something, but I don’t find Ted Cruz impressive in the least. He has a whiny voice and a face only a mother could love. As for his smarts, the Government shutdown proved the opposite.
He is a true believer and the 27% adore him. So what? I don’t see his appeal transcending the base.
Mnemosyne
@PurpleGirl:
I once saw a bad review of a bakery on Yelp because the reviewer was upset that the bakery had these macaroons for sale when she was expecting these macaroons. People were trying to explain very patiently that both kinds of cookies are called “macaroons” (sometimes “macarons”) but she refused to believe it and insisted it was false advertising on the part of the bakery.
Betty Cracker
@low-tech cyclist: Bearss Groves — north part of Tampa. Well worth a drive. They also have excellent artisan cheeses!
@WaterGirl: I have not tried it yet, but I’ve been meaning to. Sounds delish!
Tehanu
My great-aunt Ida Bob and her husband lived on a farm in Texas, and they were the only people I ever knew who grew yellow watermelons, which were — YES! — just as sweet and delicious as Betty says. They told me that their rinds were much thinner than your standard red watermelon and that was why you never saw them outside of a limited area — they didn’t ship well. Betty, I am so envious, it’s been over 50 years and I’ve never forgotten how great those watermelons were.
brettvk
@schrodinger’s cat: I get a really dangerous vibe from Cruz — hope it’s just a paranoiac response from my aging brain. For some reason everything I see or hear about him raises the ghost of Mussolini. (See how I avoided Godwin there?) Not a Nazi but a fascist, collaborating with evangelicals instead of the Vatican. I think Toobin skewers some of his prevarications/self-delusions pretty adroitly in the article, but I worry about his alleged brilliance. I think one of the things that’s kept the US from sliding into real trouble, aside from sheer constitutional inertia, is the rampant unintelligence weighing down the GOP (cf. Shrub). Goddess help us if they suddenly get a really smart leader who’s also a true believer, not just a cynical exploiter of his fellow travellers’ credulity.
Betty Cracker
@Tehanu: That explains their scarcity — the rinds are thinner. Hope you manage to find one someday!
schrodinger's cat
@brettvk: I have no doubt he will be dangerous if he gets to the levers of power but I don’t see any charisma, not even Palin level.
schrodinger's cat
@Betty Cracker: I never even knew they existed. No I have to try one.
brettvk
@Betty Cracker: Re yellow watemelons: I’ve never tasted one but I’ll have to try growing one next year. I see Pinetree Seeds (my fave company) carries two different cultivars, but Baker Creek Seeds, which is just a county away from me, has eleven!
brettvk
@schrodinger’s cat: I hope you’re right. Palin seemed to light up the same people that are willing to give Cruz standing Os, but a wider public exposure might shut him down just as quickly. I may just have a idiosycratic reaction to the man, he makes my neck hairs stand up. I doubt if I’d last long in the same room with him.
ruemara
I’ve always wanted to taste those things, but they’re too expensive. But, they certainly are beautiful.
catclub
@efgoldman: Lock up the splintered far right in the early GOP primaries and whoever the electable one is ( like Romney and McCain, who were not loved by the base), never has a chance to wear down the crazy of the week. In both 2008 and 2012 the far right of the GOP never could decide who their one candidate would be against the RINO, so McCain and Romney ended up ‘winning’ a lot of primaries with 25-35% of the vote.
So I think Cruz is already uniting the far right early, and the electable one, whoever that might be, is much weaker this time around. Look at Mississippi. Electability is a dirty word for those people, so worrying about tacking to the center makes no sense to them. I almost feel like sending money to a wrtie-in-McDaniel campaign.
moderateindy
A farmstand that I go to in suburban Chicago carries these, they call them yellow Dolls, and they are fantastic. They don’t start getting them until late August, but they are worth the wait. They also grow some other smaller varieties of watermelons which are superior to regular watermelons, as long as you don’t mind the extra seeds,
J R in WV
If you can remember what you were drinking when you were done hurling, I suspect you did it wrong. The last time I hurled was in the (thank FSM recently cleaned) bathroom at home. It was over and over and I drank water between each hurl siege to avoid the dry heaves, which hurt more. I don’t think that was from over consumption, some kind of bug or food reaction maybe.
Before that was pre-1994 because we were still living in the old farmhouse, and I went into the back yard on hands and knees and walked backwards as I heaved. No idea what I was drinking, may have been home brew beer, which can be pretty strong. More likely bourbon, but I don’t remember at all.
I hate barfing more than anything. If I got that way often from drinking booze I would have to go cold turkey… Fortunately I don’t get over done very often. Weighing 240 helps, I think.