Cantaloupe as BIG as a Basketball!

Just the other day we were walking into Kroger's to pick up our nightly kale for our Mean Green. Now we go get our kale there because it is always beautiful and the produce guy saves it specially for me each day. As we approached the store we saw the biggest cantaloupes I have ever seen in my life. These cantaloupes were bigger than personal watermelons. WERE THEY CANTALOUPES EVEN?

Into the store we went to check out this monster size melons.So we discover the name of these basketball size beauties...*Athana Cantaloupes*. Yes they are a cantaloupe! In fact they are a hybrid of a regular ole cantaloupe they are quite a bit bigger and on so much shweetier! They are mainly grown in the South and Eastern US and have a very short growing period so you have to grab them when you see them. They have a salmon colored flesh, about 125 seeds that can be removed and planted once they are dried, and the flesh melts in your mouth (so my husband and grand baby says).

We decided we just had to show you the difference this melon was so we took a picture of it beside a regular cantaloupe and a personal watermelon. See what we mean?  

 My first one weighed in at 7.5 pounds and the cost was only $2.00. So you get a whole lot of melon for a little bit of money! and boy does it make a bunch of juice too! This is how much juice one melon made....

So for this next juice we added the personal melon and 2 kiwi to the Athana. Turned out quite nice. (Yes I know i tell you all the time no all fruit juices but every now and then you can treat yourself and this also makes a great treat as a frozen pop.)

Athana Cantaloupe Watermelon Kiwi Juice

1 Athana Cantaloupe
1 Personal Watermelon (all the watermelon rind and all)
2 Kiwi peeled
Juice all the above together. Stain well and serve nice and cold.

To make as Popsicle
Need:
Paper Solo Cups smallest size I use the bathroom size.
Wood Popsicle Sticks
(or you can purchase the store made plastic Popsicle containers.)

Pour your juice into the cups til about 1/2 inch from the top of the cup. Place the cups on a flat surface that will fit into your freezer. Place into your freezer. Check on your cups, when they have reached the point where they are at the *slush* stage, place a wooden Popsicle stick in the center of each one. The stick needs to be able to stand in the cup and then place them back int the freezer to freeze rest of the way. Once they are frozen you can place them into a large plastic Ziploc bag, storage container or peel off the paper cup and eat one!

Enjoy these while you can!