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The watermelon is a rare food that lies at the intersection of juicy and crunchy, satiating the full range between hungry and thirsty. Picked at its peak, it can be the sweetest bite of summer, but somehow blends beautifully with savory dishes like salty, barbecued pork. A food that exists in the crossroads of so many polarizing aesthetics has the power to unite palates from different cultures in a celebration of dribbling juices - the United Nations surely caters all its events with nothing but slices of succulent watermelon.

This spring, watermelon farmers across the country will till their soil in preparation for summer’s demand. While traditional watermelon farming requires lots of experience, the Budget Gourmet Kitchen has been busy reviving an arcane but simple technique for home-grown watermelons: bellybutton farming.

In classic bellybutton watermelon farming, the seed from a ripe watermelon is swallowed whole. The belly button is then exposed to sunlight for as much as six hours a day until the cotyledons - the first leaves of the plant - gently push their way out of the host’s navel.

Thanks to the constant warmth of the host, bellybutton watermelons can survive in a wide range of climates. It’s best to keep the leaves of the plant in as much sun as possible, but don’t worry about watering or fertilizing: for the next 70 to 90 days, depending on the variety, the watermelon plant will absorb a modest amount of nutrients and water directly from the host’s stomach.

There are two schools of thought regarding the proper diet for a bellybutton watermelon to flourish. One camp dictates that the host must have a diet rich in minerals and vitamins. No unpasteurized dairy products are to be eaten, for fear that harmful microbes promote premature decomposition. Nor is alcohol to be consumed, which could permeate the stomach-plant barrier and cause unwanted astringency.

The other camp recommends that no such severe changes of food-intake need to be made, and that the average diet contains enough nutrients for both host and watermelon. Furthermore, it is thought that the plant has an immune system fully capable of tolerating a moderate level of unpasteurized dairy and alcohol.

Once you have successfully grown and harvested the watermelon from your bellybutton, you’ll be happy to sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Enjoy it fresh and raw after stuffing yourself with barbecued chicken, or blend it into daiquiries, or wrap it with prosciutto; the possibilities of this versatile fruit are endless. Eat it all on your own, or share it with feuding neighbors. In the right hands, ripe watermelon can mitigate civil unrest as easily as it consummates a family picnic. Just make sure you spit out the seeds, or else… well, you know.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 5:35 pm and is filed under DIY, Food, Garden. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.