Tip of the Week

Friday, August 17, 2012

Summer Melons

This summer I decided to try growing melons, which has so far been an experiment.  Growing melons vertically is a bit challenging when there are more melons ripening on one side of the trellis causing it to tip.  And I found that it was my pumpkin seed that sprouted not my watermelon seeds, so I actually didn't plant any watermelons this year.  Oops!  I definitely need to have plant stakes in my seedling planters to avoid that mistake.  Though I have a pumpkin that's about ready to be plucked from the vine and already one cantaloupe.  In the coming weeks I should have one cantaloupe and one honeydew that will have ripened for picking too.

In the mean time I found some lovely organic melons at my local Whole Foods Market to add to my cantaloupe for a summer melon salad.  And to change it up I tried the orange flesh honey dew and black sugar watermelon.  The heirloom varieties have some very interesting and sometimes, the best flavors.  For example the Gravenstein apple - I recently read that it is considered a heirloom variety and is actually on the verge of being an extinct variety of apple.  So next time look for some local melons at your store or farmer's market and make a summer melon salad.  Jazz it up with some Hawaiian Pineapple and make your picnic lunch delicious.

It's not a cantaloupe it's an orange flesh honeydew


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