Veg Box Newsletter 10th October: Horned Melon

In the Veg Boxes This Week

Subject to last minute changes

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The Nice Bit

Horned melon, or kiwano, is new to me, but of course it might not be new to you. There’s something very exciting about a variety of fruit that I’ve not yet been lucky enough to taste, and I find myself wanting to describe it as alien, odd, somehow innately unfamiliar. But the unfamiliarity is mine, not the fruit’s, and I am beginning to think that this is not the right way to approach it. It is no odder than an apple, no more alien than a potato. Still, you can’t pretend that horned melons are ubiquitous in the UK, and there is a chance that you will open your fruit bag next week and be surprised as well as delighted.

Horned melon might be spiky on the outside, but the inside is soft and silky. Studded with seeds, it can be spooned out and eaten straight. Tatenda, the manager of our Garnethill shop, grew up eating horned melons, and tells us that they are similar to but richer than cucumbers: “if a regular cucumber is Spanish olive oil then this one is Palestinian”. Surprisingly- or surprisingly to me, wikipedia surfer that I am- the horned melon isn’t any more closely related to cucumbers than any other sort of melon, but it does have enough cucumber flavour that you can it eat it savoury or sweet. Tatenda suggests (and this is particularly helpful if you’re getting a large supplementary next week) making a salad with horned melon and tomatoes. But you can also add the flesh of horned melon to a fruit salad, or top it with sugar.