Ever wondered how to celebrate the national watermelon day? The National Watermelon Day is a relatively new day to celebrate. Days to celebrate proliferate like television series. There are anniversaries for almost everything. Just as there’s a world hamburger day, world and world water day, we celebrate national watermelon day.
Watermelon is a very refreshing fruit, made by and for the summer. It has a low caloric content, since it’s a high percentage of water. This makes it a perfect fruit to hydrate and snack on the days of intense heat. For many countries that’s what await us throughout the month of July.
If you want, you can empty it inside and use its own liquid to prepare a juice. Or even a cocktail by adding an alcoholic beverage such as rum or vodka.
Since this is the “Life” section of this blog, more aimed at families, we’d like to focus more on the things kids can do on the National Watermelon Day.
Things Kids Can Do With Watermelons To Celebrate National Watermelon Day
- Like creating triangles out of watermelons, and freezing them, and enjoying them as ice in the heat of summer.
- Or creating Slime for sensory playing.
- Or create sculptures and faces on the watermelons, like they do for Halloween.
If you think your kid would love a watermelon notebook to write in. Either for watermelon day or any other day, you can download it below. It’s a 100 paged notebook – for FREE. Just click on the image.
Other Options For Treats During Summer
In addition to the watermelon, which is commemorated nationally in the US on 3rd of August every year, during the month of July and August there are endless seasonal fruits that will allow you to make delicious desserts and healthy fruit salads. Or eat them simply in bites, after having washed them in a convenient way.
Origin and Varieties of The Watermelon
Watermelon, also known as Citrullus lanatus or melancia, is one of the largest fruits known and can reach up to 10 kilos in weight. It is the fruit of the watermelon, a plant of the Cucurbitaceae family, which includes about 850 species of herbaceous plants that produce fruits that are generally large in size and protected by a hard crust.
Watermelon is considered to be native to tropical African countries and its cultivation dates back centuries to the banks of the Nile, from where it spread to numerous regions bathed by the Mediterranean Sea.
The European settlers were the ones who took it to America, where its cultivation spread throughout the continent. Today it is one of the most widespread fruits in the world, and the main producing countries are: Turkey, Greece, Italy, Spain, China and Japan.
There is evidence of more than 300 varieties of Watermelon, which are classified according to the shape of their fruits, the color of the pulp, the color of the skin, the weight, the maturation period, etc.
Genetically There Are Two Types of Watermelons
Diploid or seeded watermelons: These are traditionally cultivated varieties that produce black or brown seeds with a woody consistency.
Depending on the shape of its fruits, we find:
Elongated fruits: green rind with lighter coloured bands. In Spain they are hardly cultivated.
Round fruits: with dark green or black bark, they are the most cultivated specimens, although they are being displaced by seedless varieties.
Triploid or seedless watermelons: These are varieties that have tender white seeds that go unnoticed when eating the fruit. They are characterized by having light green rind with dark green stripes. The flesh can be red or yellow.
Did you remember to grab the FREE 100-page Notebook for National Watermelon Day (or any other day)?
The Best Time For Watermelons
Watermelons grown outdoors bloom between late spring and early summer, so the fruits are at their optimum point of ripeness throughout the summer and early fall. However, the Watermelon is grown in a greenhouse, so it is easy to have copies throughout the year.
Nutritional Properties
Watermelon is a fruit that is kept in perfect condition for two weeks if kept at 15°C, and up to three weeks at 7-10°C. Because it is very sensitive to cold, it should not be kept at temperatures below 7-10ºC. Its thick bark allows it to last in good conditions for several days at room temperature.
Many watermelons are shipped unchilled or unrefrigerated and are kept that way during transit, so they must be sold quickly as their quality declines very quickly under these conditions.
The Benefits of Watermelons
- Watermelon is said to be the fruit that contains the most water (93%), so its caloric value is very low. Just 20 calories per 100 grams. The levels of vitamins and mineral salts are not very relevant. Potassium and magnesium are the most prominent, although in lower amounts compared to other fruits.
- The pink color of its pulp is due to the presence of the pigment lycopene, a substance with antioxidant capacity.
- Potassium is a mineral necessary for the transmission and generation of nerve impulses and for normal muscle activity. It intervenes in the water balance inside and outside the cell.
- Watermelon quenches thirst.
- It has purifying properties.
- It is recommended in kidney or urinary tract problems.
- Highly indicated in slimming diets.
- Its consumption produces satiety.
- Its fiber content helps cleanse the intestines.
- It helps eliminate toxic waste.
- Help to maintain the arterial pressure.
As you probably understand by now, the benefits of the fruit is extraordinary. So why not join the celebration of this fruit on 3rd August each year?
The free 100 paged notebook can be yours if you click on the image below.