Dear Farm Community -

Goodness gracious! Just after welcoming tomatoes onto the scene with a big HELLOOOOO, are you ready to do it again for melons??

🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉
HELLOOOOO MELOOOOOOONS!
🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉🍉

I never thought I would be googling “watermelon puns,” but here we are, what a time to be alive! Turns out there really are no good ones, so I’ll stick to the facts - Last week we had our first big melon harvest and it was….. soooooo heavy! There’s a reason farmers nickname the summer months “heavy season!” But we’ve been flexing our farm-toned muscles and hauling these melons to and fro to get them to you! Watermelons made their debut at market this past weekend and thousands of pounds vanished before our eyes - quite the magic trick. Despite being heavier than any fruit has the right to be, we had a blast harvesting them. It’s a real team effort in a way that’s pretty unique - lots of coordinated melon-tossing and truck-driving, and the occasional missed catch and split melon means a sweet treat for morale. It’s basically an unofficial team sport where everybody wins. To share with you the joy we get from this whole ordeal, here’s a sweet selection of watermelon-y pics from harvest :)

Thanks for coming on this little recap - next time you bite into a melon from our farm, you can think about all the steps (and tosses) it took to get to you. We have a host of other melons on the scene right now, too! Here’s the complete rundown in the Diamond Hill Farm Melon Department:

✿ Watermelon - Starlight (pink flesh)
✿ Watermelon - Sugar baby (pink flesh)
✿ Watermelon - Sunshine (yellow flesh)
✿ Cantaloupe - Halona (orange flesh)
✿ Arava Melon (green flesh) - (think the best honeydew you’ve ever had, but with floral and tropical notes of mango and banana)
✿ Sun Jewel Melon (oblong yellow Korean melon similar in flavor to honeydew with a slight cucumber-pear flavor and a crisp, satisfying texture. Check out our instagram for more sun jewel love!)

This year’s melons have been some of the sweetest we’ve ever grown - just ask these happy customers (once they’ve finished their melon slices of course…)

With all this melon talk you KNOW we’ve got your CSA loaded with sweetness this week. Every share will be getting a delicious juicy watermelon and large share members will be getting some blueberries to sweeten the pot. While not a super traditional way to eat a melon, this recipe for watermelon slushies is incredibly delicious and makes use of the basil in your share as well! It’s a perfect refreshing drink to hydrate you on these hot summer days. The recipe calls for a LOT of melon (10 cups) and makes an enormous batch - rest assured you can scale this down easily to fit in a single serve smoothie cup - just use your best judgment on proportions, a rough estimate will still yield a delicious result! If you want to scoop up a few more melons and make the full batch, swing by to grab some at our markets! To make it a meal instead, check out this recipe for Watermelon Salad with Feta Cheese that pairs sweet with salty in a perfect summery side.

Happy Eating and Happy SUMMER! :)
Diamond Hill Farmers

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