Watermelon Aqua Fresca
By: Nikki Gardner
Published: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 - 10:17am

Ingredients




slightly adapted from Chez Panisse Fruits by Alice Waters

1 large watermelon
2 limes (juiced)
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon cane sugar
2 cups of cold water

Preparation

1 Cut and seed watermelon. 2 Push watermelon flesh through a juicer. 3 Add fresh lime juice and cane sugar. 4 Mix well. 5 Serve and garnish with lime.

About


A bowling ball size watermelon sits on the dining room table. Evergreen skin, taffy pink flesh, and coffee bean seeds, this fruit bleeds when cut. It is both a large centerpiece and an homage to summer.
A watermelon summer. During the last week of preschool, I sat on the steps of La Petite Academy spitting seeds with six of my classmates. It was my first official competition. I remember thinking that spitting seeds was not something I was particularly good at nor was it a prize-worthy event.
Then a strange turn of events happened, I spit the winning seed. I took home my prize, a dancing doll music box. Her cotton arms moved in a mechanical dance each time she was wound at the base. She wore a floor-length floral gown with pink and orange flowers with pink strapped heels. Her silky brown hair was styled in a 1960s bouffant. Each night before bed, I watched her dance on my headboard before falling asleep. It was my one and only watermelon summer. Until today.