My Halloween Adventure: Carving a Watermelon

It is always a fun tradition to carve a pumpkin for Halloween. What is Halloween without something carved or decorated?

The one problem for me is that it is very difficult to carve a pumpkin. I tried this one year with a kit and my super sharp Cutco knives from when I tried working for Vector Marketing.

I was tired from just trying to remove the insides of the pumpkin. It also made a huge mess and I did not know what to do with the bowl of the insides, even though I tried to throw them in the trash or put them down the garbage disposal. They stuck to everything.

This year, I decided to do something different.

I had a watermelon left from an event that did not go too well, so the watermelon was never even cut or eaten. I did not know what I was going to do with it.

Then, I got a newsletter that had a small editorial about what happened at a congregation nowhere near where I live.

They had a pumpkin carving party. The letter mentioned that the youth enjoyed the party and making different faces on the pumpkins. This reminded me of some past times with the youth at the congregation I usually attend.

Then, at the very end of the letter, it said that even one parent carved a watermelon.

The moment I read this, I decided that I would carve the watermelon.

Tonight, I carved the watermelon. I took out my sharp Cutco knives. I made a mistake by not bringing a huge pot or bowl for the insides, but my sister helped by getting that and also a spoon.

I could easy cut the watermelon with my sharp paring knife. This was a pleasant surprise. There is nothing really all the special about that paring knife other then the way the handle is made. It is just a straight blade that cuts easily. This means that any sharp paring knife should be able to carve a watermelon. It is not likely that a paring knife would carve a pumpkin.

I figured out where I wanted to cut the watermelon and ended up cutting off a "head" so it would top the watermelon. It would have also been possible to cut a section and then have the open side sit on the ground as if it were the bottom, so the watermelon would be able to be carved in any direction.

Taking the insides out of the watermelon was the most tiring, but it was still really easy. I often cut the insides into small pieces and then used a spoon to remove the insides. I would then hold the melon over the pot used to hold the insides so they fell out of the hole that I had cut for the top of the head.

I used a special Cutco tool that is a spatula that has a bladed edge for cutting to scrape some of the melon. However, most of the time, I used the normal table spoon to scrape the sides.

I then cut the design out of the side I wanted for the face. I cut a first eye and thought perhaps I should have used a marker to draw the design. I did not have a black permanent marker, but a silver one. I tried to draw a design, but it did not work too well.

I just went ahead and cut another eye and then a mouth. It was fun as I could just free hand the carvings of the face that I wanted. I was able to make some funny eyes and a smiling mouth that has three funny teeth.

Carving a watermelon is a lot of fun, though it does get a bit messy. There is always watermelon juice and it is sticky. There will be a lot of it as the melon is cut. The bowl or pot used to hold the insides needs to be much bigger than the melon, though it may not seem like it at first.

Carving a watermelon is a good idea if you want to carve something easy for Halloween. Watermelon lovers can eat the insides as well! Plus, why not? Radishes and other gourds were the traditional things that were carved at first. Pumpkins are gourds and they slowly became the traditions. Why not be different and carve a watermelon?