HoneyRock Cantaloupe Melon - Awesome Gluten-Free Breakfast!

[by Nick - guest gluten-free blog author]


Now that is a good breakfast!
This morning, I was pleasantly surprised that Mike had some breakfast waiting for me when I arrived at his place. He’s gotten hip to the idea that I have a pretty big appetite and he has no shortage of good eats in his kitchen. Instead of grabbing your typical American, on-the-go breakfast, such as a bagel, donuts, a McHockey Puck or any other belt-busting breakfast debacle, you can always opt for something healthier, like this Honeyrock.

I noticed that Mike was cutting up this massive melon, so I said, “That’s a pretty gigantic cantaloupe.” Well, little did I know that it wasn’t technically just a cantaloupe, but yet another wonderful gluten-free snack (or breakfast, lunch, etc) called the Honey Rock melon. Its leftover rind also makes wonderful compost too, but more about that at the end of the blog...

Have you readers ever heard of Honeyrock Mellon? Well, if you haven’t, that definitely makes two of us. For starters, this melon, by its mere appearance is huge. Relatively speaking, the Honeyrock melon has the same texture and appearance of a cantaloupe, but it’s much larger. We ended up measuring this thing and it’s 8” x 10”. So, as you can see (reference picture at top) this puppy is pretty massive. Turns out these are rather popular items grown here in Ohio as well as other States. They have a lot of Vitamin-C, Vitamin-A, and Potassium - so, decent nutrition too.



Breakfast is Served!
Now, how does it taste, smell and what’s the texture like? As I have mentioned, the Honey Rock melon looks very similar to your typical cantaloupe, but this gluten-free snack is much larger and just as tasty. So, the taste is essentially quite similar to a cantaloupe, though I almost think this fruit has even more juiciness. I am sure some individual variation exists, but this particular specimen was awesome.

The meat of the melon is sweet, tender and if you play your cards right and eat it when it’s ripe, you’d be hard-pressed to know that you weren’t eating a cantaloupe. Mike picked up that beast-of-a-melon for $3.00 USD. Unreal! Considering cantaloupes are relatively priced, you get a lot more melon for the price.

Let me go into a bit more detail about the smell and texture of the fruit now. Does it smell any different than your average cantaloupe? Does it have the same consistency on the pallet? Well, it smells just as aromatic and fruity as its relative – the cantaloupe. When you cut this baby open, she unleashes a pleasant, fruity and almost tropical aroma that pleases not only your nose, but makes your taste buds water. As far as the texture goes, let’s just say that if you were blindfolded and tried a little piece of this gluten-free heaven, you wouldn’t even know the difference between this and a great cantaloupe; and presuming you enjoy cantaloupe, you would find this fruit to be absolutely wonderful in both texture and taste, IMHO.

So, for the careful observer, it isn’t hard to see that this melon is everything the cantaloupe is, but LITERALLY you get a lot more fruit with the colossal Honeyrock. In the end, the Honey Rock melon is an over-sized cantaloupe that has all the flavor, texture and aroma as the latter, but for a bargain of a price.

Breakfast for two!
Now, I mentioned that Mike doesn’t like to waste a thing, is very conscientious when it comes to the environment, and he’s also a big-time animal lover; so, that brings us to our ‘mobile composting assistant’ that just happens to frequent Mike's back yard.

‘Sweetie’, who is a 2-year old female deer, is the daughter of ‘Sweet Tooth’ (featured on this blog before). In fact, Sweetie was featured on this blog when she was born (see: Sweet Tooth had a baby). Since then, poor Sweetie suffered a broken leg, but has returned to full health after nearly a year of seeking some caloric-boost assistance during the recovery time. Sweetie has been aiding Mike and his wife in compost-material removal (e.g., fruit and veggie scraps, and perhaps even some gluten-free dessert leftovers too) for a couple years now.

So, Honeyrock presents a great gluten-free / wheat-free food option for both humans and deer alike! I hope you’ve enjoyed the blog and melon as much as Sweetie and I have!


And, Coming Later Today...
Catchya all later today with the second in my gluten-free beer roundup series where I will review the AB Redbridge Beer and compare it to the Sprecher Shakparo beer. Stay tuned.