Lost tool lament

Back in 2021 I wrote about my favorite kitchen tools and noted that one of them was an inexpensive loop-type melon baller. A few years earlier, I wrote about not-quite-desert-island tools and a squeeze-to-open tea infuser made the list. Both of those beloved objects bit the proverbial dust a couple of months ago. While it was easy to find a replacement tea infuser, I have searched high and low but struck out completely on the melon baller. Even finding an image of it proved to be immensely difficult (it’s the one on the far right in the photo below).

The melon baller was not frequently used, but when needed, it performed its role with ruthless efficiency. When scooping a large watermelon to make salad for a crowd, ruthless efficiency is exactly what you want. Because of the sharp metal open loop and angled head, it was easier to pull through the fruit than a traditional scoop and its design meant the melon ball never got stuck in the tool. One literal flick of the wrist produced a perfect sphere. The food contact part of the tool was metal, so there was no concern about microplastics finding their way into the food. In short, it was perfect.

After nearly 20 years of flawless performance, the small weld that held the loop onto the stem gave way. My husband said that his welding equipment was not suitable for something that small, so with a twinge of sadness I pitched into the trash bin, not realizing that my sorrow was going to grow much larger. Although its design was not common, I figured that the tool would be sold somewhere in the vastness of the internet. Amazon? Nope. Specialty kitchen sites? Nada. eBay? Nothing. In an act of desperation, I even looked on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. I saw things that cannot be unseen, but no angled metal loop melon baller.

There was a plastic loop model that did not have an angled head so the ergonomics were bad (plus there is the potential for microplastics as mentioned above). There were gimmicky multi-tools with a metal loop, but they were flimsy and uncomfortable to use. I felt like Goldilocks tasting the porridge, although I never found one that is just right. So I must lament the passing of this fine tool, and find it again only in dreams.