We may not see the thousands of varieties of water and musk melons available, but there are quite a few to choose from at the Chicago area farmers markets: Sweet Baby and Moon & Stars watermelons, to Galia and Sweet Early muskmelons just to name a handful.

Now you say, I know watermelon, but what is a muskmelon? Is a muskmelon a cantaloupe or is a cantaloupe a muskmelon? Cantaloupe, Honeydew, Crenshaw, Persian, Sharlyn, Christmas, Santa Claus, Casaba and the coveted French Charantais, are all considered muskmelons. All of these sweet and aromatic melons, whose flesh range from orange to pale green, are great sources of potassium, beta carotene, vitamin A, and folate. And their cousin the watermelon packs in some vitamin C, and if it is a red-fleshed variety, some lycopene to boot.

So how to find a ripe melon at the market? Your best best is to sweet talk the farmer and have him/her pick out the perfect melon for you,. Trust me, I have yet to be disappointed going this route. You want to test your skills at picking your own? Pick an unblemished melon (if white or pale on one side this is okay, that only indicates the spot where the melon sat on the ground while on the vine) that feels heavy for its size. A couple more steps...For muskmelons do the smell test. If the fragrance is sweet, you have a perfect melon. For watermelons, give a good slap with an open hand. If the watermelon responds with a deep pitched tone, you are good to go.

Melon is perfect all by itself, or with a little salt and lime to really bring out it's sweet juicy goodness, but so many other options: as a salsa, a gazpacho or soup, a sorbet or sherbet, a refreshing aqua fresca or margarita, as a salad with some feta cheese or wrapped in prosciutto (both tasty ways to satisfy the salty-sweet craving). Or in a season that is slow to handover ripe tomatoes, swap tomatoes for watermelon in a tabbouleh or Greek salad.

This past weekend the food world lost an icon. Sheila Lukins, of Silver Palate fame, lost her battle with brain cancer. In her honor, I have been going back to her cookbooks for inspiration. From Sheila's All Around the World cookbook I tried the Chilean Avocado Salad, that though missing form the name, melon has a featured role. Scrumptious. And from my well-worn copy of the The Silver Palate Good Times cookbook, I made the Cantaloupe Gelato and the Pale Almond Gazpacho. Both sublime.

1 ripe cantaloupe, peeled, seeded, and cut into chunks

3 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups milk, scalded

Juice of 1 lemon or lime

Process the melon in a food processor or blender until smooth.

Heat water in the bottom of a double boiler over medium heat. Beat the eggs and sugar together in the top part of the double boiler and whisk in the milk. Cook over the water, whisking constantly to a light custardy consistency (about 7-10 minutes). Cool the custard.

Add the custard and lime/lemon juice to the melon puree and process until smooth.

Freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions.