Confluence Literary Festival

It is late July in Moab, and by 9 AM the mercury is approaching triple digits. In heat like this, my approach is to rise as early as possible and attempt to accomplish something before the debilitating heat sends me inside for a glass of ice water and a nap. The heat has all but taken away my appetite for anything hot or even cooked, and it can be hard to find something appetizing for lunch every day. But there is one summer staple that I relish, even obsess over&

Cantaloupe. Sweet, fragrant melons are a treat that I reserve for the summer, when the fruits are ripening on the vine. And when they are in season, I eat a half dozen a week, sliced in half and consumed with a spoon and a smile. When I am near home, I toss the seeds and slime to my chickens, who bicker and fuss over the sweet gooey treat. This was the first year I planted my own melons, and I cannot wait for the three big cantaloupes on my vine to show me some color so I can pick them and eat them too. Until then, Ive been getting my fix from the Castle Valley Farm fruit stand that sets up each day on the corner of Main Street and 100 North.

Castle Valley Farm sells organically grown melons, vine ripened only a few miles from Moab. Besides cantaloupe, the stand offers watermelons, honeydew, and Israeli melons. The aroma beckons to passersby as well as regulars such as myself, who cannot help making a stop every other day. If my cantaloupes make it home I usually refrigerate them and eat them in the morning, while reading my favorite breakfast table book, The Whole Foods Companion (Dianne Onstad 1996).

This particular book offers a wealth of information for the curious eater of foods. It is organized as an encyclopedia of sorts and subdivided into sections that include vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds, and other sorts of plant foods. Each section contains entries for most all of the foods that you are familiar with, in addition to many exotic and foreign ones. For each food, the author has compiled all kinds of interesting tidbits of lore, cultivation history, nutrition information, and preparation tips. I love reading about the food that I am eating, and also enjoy perusing the various chapters for dietary inspiration. Its very motivating to try new foods when you already have an understanding of where it comes from and all the good it will do you to incorporate it into the diet.

As far as cantaloupe goes, I have discovered the root of my summer breakfast compulsion. According to Onstad, melons are excellent cleansers and rehydrators of the body& they rejuvenate and alkalinize the body with their highly mineralized and distilled water. She also asserts that melons are a perfect food for human consumption, requiring no digestion in the stomach and passing directly to the small intestine for assimilation. So besides being delicious and refreshing, the lovely cantaloupes I have been craving are helping my body to function in this sweltering summer heat. Who knew?

Most all of us could use more variety in our diets, but if you don't know where to start I highly recommend this fascinating book. And if all you can stand to eat right now is fruit, then I recommend a stop at the Castle Valley farm stand.