Cantaloupe melon is an excellent source of vitamin A and gives a good boost of vitamin C, calcium, potassium and iron. Its high water content makes it ideal in summer as a thirst-quenching snack (Nutrition, 21July), and its sweet taste and pretty pink colour can make it a good alternative to sweets.
Using cantaloupe melon
* If melons are not fully ripe their flesh will be hard and have little juice or flavour. You may well need to buy them two to three weeks in advance. Keep them at room temperature until they are completely ripe. They are ready when they have a distinct scent and sound hollow when tapped.
Nowadays, many melons are not at their best until their skins begin to visibly deteriorate, so don't let that put you off.
* Wash the outside, deseed the melon, then offer thin wedges to eat as finger food, perhaps as a snack or at the end of a meal.
* Serve frozen wedges as 'lollipops'.
* Top melon slices with little piles of red fruit.Cherries go especially well and are highly nutritious; stone them at the last moment with a metal cherry stoner.
* Mix into fruit salads in chunks or as balls (use a melon-baller).
* Make a jelly with orange juice and gelatine, then drop in a mixture of brightly coloured summer fruits including melon pieces (Nutrition, January 2004).
* Melon smoothie/soup: liquidise or process with a speck of sugar and salt or a little fresh ginger.
Also serve other kinds of melon, especially, in summer, watermelon, a source of magnesium. As its name suggests, watermelon is almost all water (92 per cent), so is very thirst-quenching. The juicy slices are perhaps best eaten outdoors! The pips are traditionally discarded, but are normally harmless if swallowed.
(c) Mary Whiting, July 2005
There are more ideas in Mary Whiting's 'Dump the Junk!' (Moonscape, price 7.99)
