How to Turn a Watermelon Into a Hedgehog: Carving Contest Announcement!

Did you know that July is National Watermelon Month? It certainly is at our home…this is the month when we buy a watermelon at the grocery store almost every week!

The National Watermelon Promotion Board wants to help celebrate the season of this fruit (which is my second favorite fruit in the world…the first being mango). They are hosting a watermelon carving contest, and the grand prize winner is going to get $600! Woo hoo!

There are five different categories for entries, and one of those categories is Watermelon.org carvings. This site has dozens of different carvings with step-by-step instructions on how to make them! We decided to go this route since we’ve never carved a watermelon before and needed some direction.

We decided to make this cute little hedgehog (though I think he looks more like a porcupine, personally). Here’s the inspiration photo:

You can find the complete tutorial for this design here. Tim was the head carver for this project, and it took about 40 minutes from start to finish. I think that’s not bad, at all, considering that he had absolutely no previous experience with carving a watermelon! Even our pumpkin carvings every fall are nowhere close to this elaborate!

Here are some pictures from our carving adventure to show you how our hedgehog came to be.

First, slice just enough off the bottom so that it will sit flat and not roll.

Next,carve the watermelon so that it looks a bit like a convertible!

Now its time to add some flair. This is probably the most time-consuming step. You are adding prickly “hair” all around the edges.

Time to make the nose and ears! They get carved out from the top of the watermelon that was previously removed.

Blueberries are used for the tip of the nose and the eyes.

Now cut up all the watermelon chunks and add toothpicks to each piece. This makes it easy for folks to grab, and also gives the look of a hedgehog (I still think it’s a porcupine!).

We took the finished product to Darah’s school so that the 2 and 3 year olds there could enjoy it. It certainly gave them a lot of giggles!

I think our hedgehog looks absolutely adorable. I don’t think we are going to walk away with that grand prize, but we sure did have fun in the attempt. Maybe you will be the big winner! But to have a shot at it, you’ve got to enter! Check out all the details about the watermelon carving contest and get to work on a fun design!

Disclosure: I was sent a complimentary watermelon in the mail (what a crazy thing to get via FedEx!), cookie cutters, a carving tool and a watermelon cutting board to help facilitate our carving fun. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own.