melon (sic) workshop

Spatula and Barcode invite you to join us for a melon (sic) workshop.  As part of a Mellon Workshop on Aesthetic Relations funded by the Center for Humanities at the University of Wisconsin, Spatula and Barcode will host a workshop to celebrate the last days of melon season.

You are invited to help us think about all sorts of aesthetic relations while tasting dishes prepared from all sorts of melons*: bitter, canary, cantaloupe, cassava, crenshaw, hami, honeydew, musk, pepino, persian, sugar, yubari, and water melon, along with some of melons’ close relatives: cucumbers, gourds, pumpkins, and squashes.  (*Please note that not all melon varieties are seasonally or regionally available).

The event will take place on Sunday, 18 September at starting promptly at 5 PM.
At exactly 7 PM, we’ll end by toasting the big melon setting in the west with a midori cocktail.

Contact spatulaandbarcode@gmail.com for reservations.

RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED. Attendance at this event is limited to twenty-four pre-registered guests. Reserve now because spaces will fill quickly.

Once our guest list is confirmed, registered participants will receive directions to the event and instructions about how to prepare.

excerpted from from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melon

Melon is a name given to various members of the plant family cucurbitaceae with sweet flavored, fleshy fruit.  Melon can refer to the plant or the fruit.  The plant grows as a vine.  Although the melon is a fruit, some varieties may be considered “culinary vegetables”.

Humankind has been eating melons for more than 4,000 years. Surprisingly, melons have never been found growing in the wild—other than escapees from someone’s garden. Melons are believed to have originated in the hot valleys of southwest Asia—specifically Iran (Persia) and India. Early American settlers grew cultivars of honeydew and casaba melons back in the 1600s. Yet, only in recent times, many more varieties are available, often out of season in grocery stores.

The word melon derives from Latin (melopepo)which is the latinization of the Greek (mēlopepon).  The first documented use of the word “melon” was about 1395. John Ayto’s Dictionary of Word Origins suggests that the word is derived from Melos (the Greek Cyclades Islands, best known for the Venus de Milo). Melons wend their way into literature. According to one hadith, Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said: “Whenever you eat fruit, eat melon, because it is the fruit of Paradise and contains a thousand blessings and a thousand mercies. The eating of it cures every disease.”

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