Honeydews are available all year. Choose honeydews that are firm, heavy and well rounded. Avoid ones with a hard, dead-white rind with a green tint, which indicates it is unripe. Use honeydews for an hors d'oeuvres with prosciutto, in desserts and in soups. Serve halved honeydews filled with chicken, shrimp, tuna or seafood salad.

Most honeydews on display are not ready to eat and need to be ripened for a day or so. Shaking honeydews isn't a good way to test ripeness or sweetness.

To ripen honeydews, place whole melons inside loosely closed paper bags. Once cut, honeydews won't ripen. So store cut fruit or fully ripe whole honeydews in tightly sealed plastic bags inside your refrigerator.

Nutritional Facts:

• Fat-free
• Saturated fat-free
• Low sodium
• Cholesterol-free
• High in vitamin C

Suggestion: Prosciutto works beautifully wrapped around slices of fresh, ripe cantaloupe and honeydew melon for a memorable first course.

See also: Honeydew Melon Facts

Honeydew Salsa (New window)

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