Crenshaw Melon
Funny…I always thought of honeydews and watermelons as a tangible piece of summer. Technically, though, they’re winter melons, just like this crenshaw melon I found at my local produce market last week. (“Summer melons,” for the record, include cantaloupes and muskmelons.)
Turns out that the reason crenshaws and their winter cousins fall into the winter category is because they have smooth/finely-ridged, pale skins. Summer melons have cross-hatched skins that look more like netting than rinds. Winter melons also tend to have more of a delicate flavor and inner flesh that’s a pale hue.
Like honeydews, crenshaw melons have a light, almost-elusive taste — made all the more intriguing because while the outer skin is a bright yellow, the inner flesh is just a few shades paler than cantaloupe, which makes you think that it’s going to taste like one. If anything, though, it reminds me more of an orange-tinged honeydew.
Try combining the winter melons into a jewel-toned fruit salad: orange, green, and pink. The melons won’t turn brown the way apples and pears do, and you could use the scooped-out crenshaw husk to make an eye-catching fruit bowl. Now, that’s a good example of bringing a little bit of winter into your summer!
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Tags: crenshaw, melons, summer melons, winter melons
