Watermelon has been on my mind! We’ve gone through two watermelons in two weeks, and I can’t even begin to tell you how many peaches (most of them sliced up into small pitchers of Chianti to accompany dinner), plus mangoes and lychees and cherries, and the apricots have been wonderful this year, too. I tend to think there is nothing like summer fruit, but then of course autumn comes and so do the apples and the pomegranates, and then winter brings all the citrus and stuffed dates… and maybe I’m just a little in love with fruit, in general. I am my father’s son, after all. When I was a boy, I’d accompany Dad to the market, where he would buy summer fruits by the wooden crateful. This, I assumed, was how fruit was sold, and I thought everyone did this.
And so it’s July and we find ourselves firmly in the midst of all those summer fruits… and in the second half of the year. North of the 49th Parallel, it’s Canada Day today (la Fête du Canada), which, I imagine, will be celebrated with greater gusto and enthusiasm this year, for reasons I shan’t mention. The Dog Days of Summer will soon begin, too, once Sirius, the Dog Star, begins rising with the sun as it does each early July. They’ll be with us for about five weeks before the two stars go their separate ways again. And the Fourth, of course, brings our own national holiday here in the States, and there will be fireworks at the Lake Worth Lagoon.
Your Convivio Book of Day Calendar for July lists all the celebrations of the month. It’s a free printable PDF, as usual. CLICK HERE for yours. It’s the month, too, of Tanabata, the Japanese Star Festival, and of St. Swithin’s Day and several other saints’ days, too, and when we reach month’s end, already we will have a first inkling of fall, for the month ends with Lammas Eve. It is the night when Shakespeare’s Juliet was born, and it is heralds the day when, in our agricultural past, the first grain harvest would be brought in. Hence, a good day to bake a crusty loaf and to enjoy the first fruits of our labor.
This is summer. Enjoy its warmth and sweetness.
COME SEE US AT THE SHOP!
We’ve got Kim Spivey teaching a new session of Collagraph Printmaking on Sunday July 27. Kim’s a great teacher and this is a wonderful class… it’s the second time she’s teaching it for us this year. Come learn something new!
Image: Still Life with Watermelon by Rubens Peale. Oil on canvas, 1865 [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons.
It’s peak watermelon season at our house with a bountiful side of Georgia peaches! Don’t forget the Florida sweet corn – a must cook on the grill treat!
Oh the sweet corn has been good! Is it Pineapple Time, too, at the Icangelo homestead? You’ve always got the best pineapple grove in town.
All of these things sounds so delicious! Here in Texas, we get Fredericksburg or Hill Country peaches, along with the Georgia variety. I have a hard time finding black seeded watermelon, which are my favorite. I think they might taste a little better. Do you still have them in Florida? When we were kids, we drove from Houston to Hempstead, (which seemed like a long drive now it’s part of Houston), and we would buy Hempstead watermelons. They were supposed to be the best in Texas.! Great memories! Thanks for a fun summer post!
Yeah, it’s not easy these days finding watermelons with seeds. When I was at the Penland School of Craft for the first time, in July of 1994, one of the things I remember was a Watermelon Seed Spitting Contest. Fellow book artist Eileen Wallace, who was a Penland Core Student at the time, was proclaimed the winner. This is one of those things that progress seems to have taken from us. Seedless watermelon is fine, but alas, Watermelon Seed Spitting Contests are harder to come by, and this is a great disservice to summer.
The peaches we’ve been enjoying are all being shipped here from Georgia and South Carolina. I don’t think there are many peach trees here in Florida, at least not this far south.
One of the best watermelons we ever tasted, Mary Beth, was one that grew in our backyard, under the laundry line, when I was kid. We didn’t plant it; it grew on its own (a volunteer that obviously came from someone spitting a watermelon seed out in the dirt) and that vine grew and grew and one melon came of it: a large oval heavy melon, probably a Charleston Grey. We didn’t know what to do with it or when to harvest it, but we took a chance when it seemed ripe, and it sure was. There was nothing like it ever. Not before not since.
John, your watermelon story reminds me of my own. When I was very young watermelon was a special treat, usually reserved for Sundays at Nana’s. On hot Sunday afternoon we had icy cold watermelon for dessert. Papa told us to each save a seed, and after we made quick work of the sweet melon, he took us outside to plant the seeds. The next Sunday as soon as we got to Nana and Papa’s house we rushed out back to see if anything had sprouted. Lo and behold, there were three watermelons ripe and ready for eating growing from the vines. We found out years later that Papa had gone to a farm and got three melons with vine attached and stuck the ends in the ground. Papa may not have spoken English well, but he sure knew how to communicate with his grandchildren.
I hope everyone reading this has a summer as magical as those of my childhood were.
Oh wow, that’s wonderful, Scott! I like your Nana and Papa. Where were they from?
They were both from Capestrano in Abruzzo.
One of my favorite summertime books to read is Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury. Talk about magical summers, Scott! Maybe I’ll pick it up again this summer. The edition I have is a pocket paperback that is probably four decades old by now.
I grew up in the lower midwest, so summers were for peaches, vine-warmed tomatoes on the outdoor smoky grilled burgers, and most of all watermelon (and sweet iced sun-tea).
I remember sitting on the steps spitting seeds with my sister & Grandpa. He loved his watermelon with salt, which as a kid with an insatiable sweet tooth seemed so strange. Now that I have lived on the West Coast for years now, I find that Grandpa was right – a touch of Tajin (the lime & spice are SO GOOD on watermelon!) is a nod to his odd-seeming addition.
I hadn’t noticed the lack of seeded watermelons, but haven’t shopped for them lately, as with only two of us we can only eat so much. Right now we’re still stuffing ourselves with cherries the size of small plums & though our cherry tree only had one single fruit for one single day, the sour plum tree is heaving & is well on it’s way to be ripe for making syrups and booze in August.
I had to look up Tajin… is that the spice that’s sprinkled on the fresh cut fruit we buy from vendors at the local Dia de Los Muertos celebration? I just assumed it was chili powder, but now you’ve got me wondering! If that’s the case, then I’m sure you’re right that it is delicious on watermelon.
Cherries were one of those things Dad would purchase by the case in summertime: safe to say he’d buy at least three wooden crates full of cherries each summer! Sour plums are new to me… tell me more, please! It sounds like you use them only for cooking (and boozing).