HOW TO CARVE: A WATERMELON PIG

Last month’s attempt to carve a watermelon mouth taught me something: I prefer to carve watermelon animals. Nothing against carvings that aren’t animals, but I seem to get more enjoyment out of creating a creature than I do out of creating a slightly creepy-looking mouth.

For this month’s creature carving, I chose the cute little watermelon pig featured on the National Watermelon Promotion Board website. Here’s a step-by-step guide detailing how I chopped, cut and sliced my way to the creation of this barnyard cutie.

MATERIALS NEEDED

• 1 round or oblong seedless watermelon
• 1 cantaloupe (optional)
• Carving knives of various sizes
• 1 pink pipe cleaner
• 1 pink foam craft sheet
• 3 buttons (one large pink and two blue)
• Melon baller and a bowl
• Toothpicks

As always, thoroughly wash your watermelon prior to getting started.

Chop off the top like you see in the photo above and set that part of the rind aside to create the pig’s feet. Use a melon baller to scoop out the red flesh (or just cube it up like I did). If you can manage to save three pieces of watermelon for every one piece you eat, you’re doing okay. Set these watermelon pieces (and optional cantaloupe pieces) aside to be placed back into the pig later. Scoop out any remaining watermelon flesh using a large spoon. Feel free to eat as much of this part as you want.

Cut some feet like the ones seen above, or use your imagination to create feet in whatever shape you think looks most piglike. Next, coil the pipe cleaner to create the tail, and cut ears from the pink foam craft sheet. You can also use a small circle of the rind for the snout, and if you prefer, top with a large pink button. Attach the ears, eyes and snout with straight pins or toothpicks. You might be able to stick the tail into the watermelon by itself (or use a toothpick to create a hole first).

Fill your porker with your watermelon and cantaloupe balls and pig out! As you’ll see from the picture, I didn’t have buttons, pipe cleaner for the tail or foam craft sheet for the ears, so I made do with construction paper. All in all, I think it turned out okay, don’t you think?