Having an organic farmer that shows up at your door every Wednesday afternoon with the freshest, yummiest and most in-season foods is literally a dream come true for this girl.

It’s like my own personal Food Network show where I am given a box of random ingredients and I have to create something delicious with them. I guess the only difference is, I don’t also have to use random canned weirdness, fish body parts or other strange things no one has ever heard of.

Basically, it just means I get to play with my food and I get to be creative with different delicious treats, each week. It really is so fun.

Lately, we’ve been getting all kinds of amazing fruit in our boxes and most excitingly we have been getting these big beautiful watermelons that are seriously the tastiest things I have ever had. So sweet, so juicy and just so perfect for these hot sunny days we’ve been having.

I created these non-alcoholic Watermelon Hibiscus Coolers simply because at one point we had more watermelon than we knew what to do with. They are soo refreshing, so perfectly sweet and aromatic and a beautifully impressive, refreshing treat when you have guests. I served these at the little Memorial Day BBQ we hosted here at our place. Some was even served as margaritas (recipe below) with silver tequila and a little extra fresh lime juice.

With or without spirits, the slight tartness from the lime juice is so perfect with the sweetness of the watermelon and the raw honey and the subtle floral undertones from the hibiscus really compliments it all so beautifully in this gorgeous pink-hued, caffeine-free, summer time drink.

I personally don’t like overly sweet anything, so I went light on the honey with these. Everyone has a different preference on sweetness and watermelons vary greatly on their natural sweetness, so I recommend tasting the drink once mixed and adding additional sweetener, as necessary.

BONUS: Save some of the dried hibiscus you used to make the tea (or additional unused hibiscus) – add a bit more hot water, steep it, strain it and use it as you would regular fabric dye. I tie dyed a misprinted tea towel from our collection and turned it into the perfect one-of-a-kind background for these photos.

[print_this]Watermelon Hibiscus Lime Cooler
Makes 2 quarts

• 4 cups filtered or purified water
• 1/2 cup dried hibiscus (or 4 hibiscus tea bags)
• 4 cups fresh watermelon juice (see note below)
• 1/4 cup raw honey, maple syrup or other sweetener
• 1/2 cup fresh lime juice

Bring 4 cups of water to a boil and pour over the dried hibiscus. Allow to steep for 5-8 minutes.

Make the watermelon juice. Remove as many of the seeds as you can from the watermelon and cut the flesh into cubes. Discard the rinds. Add 4 to 6 cups of watermelon cubes to the blender and process until smooth. Strain through a strainer or sieve and discard the pulp. (I start with 4 cups of cubed watermelon and add more as needed to get to 4 cups of strained juice)

Strain the hibiscus tea, add the sweetener of your choice. Stir until dissolved.

Once the tea is cooled add to the watermelon juice and add the lime juice. Give it all a good stir and taste. Add more sweetener, as necessary.

Chill until ready to serve. Serve over ice with a watermelon or lime wedge. [/print_this]

[print_this]Watermelon Hibiscus Lime Margarita
serves 2

• 1 cup watermelon hibiscus lime cooler (see above)
• 2 tablespoons additional fresh lime juice
• 4 ounces silver tequila

Add all of the ingredients to a shaker with ice, shake to combine and strain into a chilled margarita glass, with ice, serve with a lime wedge. Salt your rim if you wish.

You could also make this a slushy margarita, by add ice and blending. [/print_this]