During this time of the year, I can eat my weight in watermelon, cantaloupes and other types of melon — and that’s a lot of melon.

My love affair with watermelons goes back to when I was in diapers. If a watermelon could not be found at home, I knew my granddaddy, Hoke Sanders, my mother’s daddy, likely would have one at his house.

Grandma may have taken care of the biscuits, gravy, salt meat, grits, fried chicken and homemade, fried peach pies (individual portions, please), but it was Hoke Sanders’ job — which he relished — to make sure watermelons were abundant at that house on West Avery Street in Pensacola, Fla. With such an abundance of watermelons, it’s no wonder that before I entered kindergarten I earned the designation as “The Great Watermelon Hunter.” (See accompanying photograph for proof of my watermelon-hunting prowess.)

Over the years, my research discovered more than 1,200 varieties of watermelon. I’ve not eaten one of each variety (OK, I’ve come close, I think).

I know I’ve eaten these varieties: Carolina Cross, Moon and Stars, yellow crimson and so on. I’d like to try one of those square watermelons from Japan. Those melons are grown in glass boxes, which allow the melons to assume the shape of the boxes.

My favorite watermelon of all time goes by the name of rattlesnake watermelon, or to be more precise, Georgia rattlesnake watermelons.

Granddaddy Sanders was a Georgia native, so perhaps that’s why I like that specific watermelon. For you Latin lovers, it’s citrullus lanatus. It’s light green with darker green stripes.

Georgia rattlesnake watermelons won’t bite you. Instead, it’s the other way around.

Granddaddy Sanders also introduced me to the best way to eat a cantaloupe. First, cut a cantaloupe in half. Second, scoop out the seeds from the middle of each half. Third, refrigerate each half for eight hours. Fourth, put a scoop of ice cream (the no-sugar-added, low-fat kind) in the center of one of the halves. Eat that half. Follow these same instructions for the other half, which should be eaten while watching an episode of “The Andy Griffith Show,” preferably the episode about the goat that ate dynamite.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with eating cantaloupe slices that have been sprinkled with a dash or two of salt and pepper.

Next on the list of preferred melons comes the honeydew, followed, in order, by the muskmelon, Santa Claus melon and Sprite melon, which hails from Japan. As good as they are eating by the slice, these melons are key ingredients for great smoothies.

I doubt I’ll ever eat a Densuke watermelon, the rarest of watermelons. With its black rind and juicy, pink interior, they are much prized. A 17-pound Densuke watermelon sold for $6,100 in 2008.

When it comes to watermelon juice running down my neck and dripping on the ground, I’ll stick with the cheaper watermelons. For $6,100, I’d have enough Georgia rattlesnake watermelons to last me until summer of 2015.

Mike Voss covers the city of Washington for the Washington Daily News. He learned why honeydew melons have formal weddings — they cantaloupe (can’t elope).