Summers, Watermelon and Cheese

Do all Armenians love watermelon?  All in Marash Girl's family certainly did.  The kids ate slices of watermelon, usually off the skin, walking around in the back yard, and spitting the seeds into the grass.  The grownups would have their watermelon removed from the skin, sliced into chunks.   Grandma Jennie often served watermelon with cheese (more often than not, home made cheese), or watermelon with salt for Marash Girl's father who loved his watermelon with salt!

And since most Armenians had known hunger, they  never wasted food.  Marash Girl vaguely remembers that folks used to peel off the green outer skin of the watermelon (leaving the white of the rind) and use the white of the rind to make candy.  Marash Girl's family did not.  Her father would grind the watermelon rind in his compost grinder and use the ground watermelon rinds to fertilize his magnificent vegetable garden.