One of the easiest ways to keep cool in summer is to bring out that ice cold watermelon and then munch on it. No summer picnic or barbecue is complete without this sweet red fruit. The succulent watermelon is a sweet treat that provides liquid to the body, as its flesh is over 90 percent water. August has been named National Watermelon Month.

Believed to have originated in the Kalahari Desert in Africa, watermelons have not always been as tasty and sweet as we enjoy those today. This fruit was once hard and unappetizing, tasting either bitter or bland. Generations of selective breeding, spanning several countries and cultures, has produced the present melons with green skin and red flesh. The Egyptians first recorded in hieroglyphics some 5,000 years ago their cultivation of the watermelon.  

By the 7th century watermelons were being cultivated in India and by the 10th century watermelons had reached China, which today is the world’s single largest watermelon producer. Eur...