Melon agua fresca. Photo: Smitten Kitchen.

There is perhaps nothing more refreshing on a hot day than a fruity drink. Sure, ice cream, Popsicles and beer all have their place in the chill summer pantheon, but the combination of something already so summery (fruit) with nature's most refreshing resource (water) is pure heaven when the thermometer is pushing 90 or 100 degrees. And no one does fruity drinks better than Mexicans (margarita, anyone?).

Shown above are gloriously green and outrageously orange aguas frescas, which translates loosely to "fresh waters." These are typically blended with fruits, cereals or seeds and, of course, sugar. These colorful concoctions from Deb at Smitten Kitchen are made with cantaloupe and honeydew melon, lime juice, sugar, salt, water and seltzer.

The twist of lime on each glass serves as a reminder that though these drinks don't contain any alcohol, they're still suitable to serve to grown-ups at fiestas.

[Via Smitten Kitchen]

The dark side of cantaloupe. Photo: oskay, Flickr

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By this time of the year, markets and grocery stores are overflowing with a gorgeous array of melons. There are a few ways to know when your melon is ripe. They involve understanding that there are two classes of melon: the muskmelons and the watermelons.

Time to check in with our sister site GreenDaily for some environmental/food news:

• Water bottles: filters on the go; why we probably don't need as much water as everyone says we do

• Produce: not enough land to grow local stuff?; neighborhood gardening; cantaloupe salmonella scare; raw food safety tips; urban agriculture at its finest; try what one poster calls a "superfood berry"; how far has your fruit traveled?
  

• Milk: California might ban it; buy the best container; try organic; consumers fight back

• Chocolate is even better with when it comes complete with antioxidants and carbon offsets

• Junk Food: Cadbury goes green; organic ice cream; Sun Chips get sunnier
  

• Ball parks: all-you-can-eat seating; will the Nationals stadium be named after PETA?
  

Is it just me or is a lot of food being recalled lately? Or maybe it's just that food has always been recalled, but we're just more aware of the news.

Whatever it is, the most recent news is that the FDA has issued an import alert on cantaloupe from Agropecuaria Montelibano, a Honduran grower and packer. Fruit from this company appears to be associated with a Salmonella Litchfield outbreak in the United States and Canada. Apparently, about 50 people have fallen ill.

I'm not exactly sure what an "import alert" is and whether that's better, worse, or not really associated with a total recall, but if you've got the orange-fleshed melons, check the sticker for the origin, and if there's no sticker, well, when in doubt, throw it out.

My grandma Bunny (her real name was Edith, but she disliked it so intensely that she renamed herself Bunny at summer camp when she was nine-years-old and never looked back) loved melon. The smell of ripening cantaloupe or casaba melon is one of the scents I associate with her Southern California ranch house (that and the aroma of the Am-way products in the garage).

She died before my interest in food and cooking really blossomed, and so we never really got a chance to sit around and talk food tips, experiences and advice. However, her love of melon coupled with her sense of humor makes me think that she would have really enjoyed John T. Edge's recent post on the Gourmet's Choptalk blog entitled My Wife Abuses Our Melons. Since she's not around to get a chuckle out of his story about how his wife leaves the cantaloupes in the trunk to ripen via concussion, I thought I'd share it with you all. I hope you enjoy.

Photo link.

Dole has issued a recall on cartons of cantaloupes in the Eastern US and Quebec, Canada, after discovering the fruit tested positive for salmonella. Approximately 6000 cartons of the Costa Rican-grown fruit were distributed to wholesalers between the dates of February 5th though 8th, though no reports of illness have yet come in.

Though I don't know how this will help those that bought individual cantaloupes, the cartons they were packaged in were dark brown with red lettering and have a 13-digit number on them with the tenth digit of 2. If you think you may have purchased some, you can contact the store where you got them, or Dole directly at 1-800-232-8888.

Though a salmonella infection can be fatal, the most common symptoms are diarrhea, fever, dehydration, abdominal pain and vomiting.

At first glance, especially with this interior photo, this fruit looks like a cantaloupe. It's not. It's an orange-flesh honeydew melon. I first spotted these unusual yellow-skinned melons at the market this week. They were simply labeled "Orange Flesh," not as a distinct type of melon, but they smelled delicious, so I thought I would give them a try. Apparently, another name for these is the Temptation Melon and they are actually a hybrid between cantaloupes and honeydews. It has a smooth, thin yellow skin and a creamy orange interior that is both juicy and sweet - combining the defining traits of both melon types, though it actually tastes more like honeydew than cantaloupe. I highly recommend picking one up if you can find them.

To bring something more unusual than a floral arrangement to decorate the table, try making and edible centerpiece. The DiY Network has a brief tutorial on turning heads of cabbage and zucchini squash into beautiful, blooming cacti.

You can also try your own "floral" arrangements by using a cookie cutter to punch out fruit in the shapes of stars and flowers. If you're not feeling crafty, though, you can always buy an Edible Arrangement. They're bouquets of festively arranged fruit "flowers" in attractive baskets and pitchers. A few of their arrangements are dressed up with chocolate covered strawberries, though the most prominent fruits are honeydew, cantaloupe and pineapple.