fruit salad with mint-coconut simple syrup

 

my mom always made the most fabulous fruit salad when we were kids. she would take a watermelon and carve it into a basket using a massive knife and i'm guessing most of her sanity as all four of us kids caused  sticky and loud havoc around her in the kitchen. i found this insanely impressive at the age of ten, and still do in fact as my knife skills and sanity for that matter are mostly held together with scotch tape and chocolate. but back to the basket. she carved a handle into the top of the watermelon and delicately scalloped the edges before scooping all the juicy bits of watermelon from it's bright green shell. she then made a fruit salad with every berry she could get her hands on plus cantaloupe, honey dew and of course, the watermelon. this fruit salad would practically overflow from the basket's brim and became the centerpiece at many a family picnics each summer. you could even carry it! the handle was functional. i swear. this thing was gorgeous. i will never be brave enough to try to carve a basket out of a watermelon, as i fear it would end up like most of my pumpkin carving attempts each fall -- misshapen, ill proportioned and just plain odd looking. i did want to dress up the fruit salad i was making a few weeks ago, at least in taste, so i made a quick coconut-mint simple syrup with the bounty of mint that has decided to take residence in our front yard. the simple syrup has a delicate, subtle summertime flavor, but really would be nice any time of year, think of it over stone fruits in the fall. the bonus of this syrup is that it boosted my confidence since my fruit salad for this party was packed in tupperware instead of a watermelon basket. 

fruit salad:

1 watermelon

2 cantaloupes

2 lbs strawberries

2 lbs of blackberries

2 pints of raspberries

dice fruit to similar size

coconut-mint simple syrup

1 cup water

1/2 cup coconut sugar

1/2 cup mint leaves

combine water and sugar over low heat till sugar is melted, add mint leaves, steep on low 5-10 minutes

strain mint leaves and let syrup cool

add syrup to diced fruit and let marinate for at least an hour in the fridge before serving