"melons" news and stories

Melons are not having a good start to the season. A mass recall of 4,992 cartons of Del Monte cantaloupes was issued in seven western states last Tuesday due to potential Salmonella outbreak at their Asunicion Mita farm in Guatemala, according to the company's press release. But this isn't the first time melons have posed a health risk.

The Food and Drug Administration notes that between 1996 and 2008, 13 out of 83 infected types of fresh produce were melons, and 10 were cantaloupe. Ray Costa, a registered sanitarian and food safety education advocate, tries to explain why in Food Safety News.

To cut up a melon, I usually take the following step: slice it in half, scoop out any non-edible innards, place cut side down on a cutting board and remove the rind with a sharp knife. Once the rind is removed, I proceed to slice and serve the melon.

But removing the rind can be tricky, especially with larger melons or for cooks who don't have a sharp knife at the ready, so the Melon Ease melon slicer offers an alternative method of melon preparation. Once your melon is sliced in half and has the seeds removed, the slicer is inserted into the melon and it cuts the melon into even segments. With a simple twist of the top handle, the slices are separated from the rind and ready to eat.

This doesn't seem like a "must have" gadget for most homes, and I won't even get in to the fact that it will be difficult to store, but if you eat a lot of melon, you might just get a lot of use out of it.

Source

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Summer is the season of fruit, since it seems that more things are in season than at any other time of year. Not only is fruit good for you in terms of nutritional value, but fruits can even help you lose weight. The easiest way to incorporate fruits into your diet is to cut up a large bowl of them and keep them in the fridge. A fruit salad will last longer than fruits stored at room temperature and, because they are already cut up, they are available for snacks and other meals.

There is no recipe for fruit salad, so you can include any kind of fruit you like. Melons and stone fruits, such as peaches and nectarines, are good choices and berries, grapes and pineapple work well, too. For breakfast, serve the fruit salad with yogurt and honey, adding a topping of nuts or granola for some crunch. This combination works well for a light lunch, too. Fruit salad can't really be the focus of dinner, but it can still be served as a side and provides a particularly nice contrast to smoky, tangy barbecue.

And for dessert? Berries and sweetened whipped cream still counts as a fruit salad, right?

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.