tuba city

Twisting My Melon, Man

This summer I've been far too slack about getting up early on Saturdays and going to the Carrboro Farmer's Market. But sleep or no sleep, there was absolutely no way that I was going to miss last Saturday's market featuring the annual melon tasting. Watermelon is one of my favorite things about summer, especially now that the smaller and sweeter seedless varieties are readily available in major grocery stores. Over the past two months I've typed 4032 (and sometimes 4031) onto those self-service checkout touchscreens time and time again. But I'd been looking forward to a chance to cut out the middleman. Enter "Melon Tasting 2004"....

I arrived at the Farmer's Market around 8:45 am and got in a small line by the main gazebo structure where the tasting was taking place. Several melon tasting workers/volunteers were in the middle of the gazebo, cutting and slicing all sorts of different melons into small toothpick-able chunks. Plates full of these melon samples were arranged in a big circle around the edge of the gazebo. Tasting participants got to take a list of the different varieties and growers and also a ballot on which to cast votes for the best watermelon, the best cantaloupe, and the best "other melon". First up was the "Early Dew" melon from Stanford Farm. I'm normally not so big on honeydews, but this one was a pretty great melon. A little sweeter and more flavorful than most honeydews I've had...and the clear winner in the "other melon" category. Next up was an Athena cantaloupe from Maple Spring Gardens. One of several locally produced Athena cantaloupes and a little disappointing, I thought. Luckily, this was followed up by an awesome Cooperstown Seedless watermelon from Lyon Farms. There were several other great watermelons to follow, but the incredibly delicious Cooperstown Seedless wound up winning my watermelon vote.

One of the highlights of an event like this is certainly the opportunity to taste fresher and superior versions of familiar melons. But even more appealing is simply being able to experience the stranger and harder-to-find melon varieties that rarely show up in grocery stores. On this front, Turtle Run Farm came through in a big way with a couple of very striking-looking watermelons: the bright yellow Lemon Ice variety, and the jet-orange "I-can't-believe-it's-not-cantaloupe" Orange Sunshine. The Orange Sunshine was particularly great....it tasted somewhat like a fairly sweet seedless watermelon that just happened to be orange. Incidentally, Turtle Run Farm also provided the best cantaloupe in the tasting: an Ambrosia cantaloupe that was much juicier and less firm than the more commonplace Athena variety. I had never really known there to be more than one type of cantaloupe, but now that I've had this Ambrosia type, I plan on seeking it out whenever possible....as it is a far superior 'loupe.When I finished up with the melon tasting, I headed over to the Turtle Run Farm booth in order to buy an entire Orange Sunshine watermelon ($5.00) and an Ambrosia cantaloupe (only $2.00). Whoa, two orange melons to take home! I never would have predicted that given my affinity for the sweet red seedless. On the way out I saw that Sunset Farms was selling some tiny Royal Majesty watermelons for only two bucks each. These things were not even the size of a Nerf football, but I'm glad I picked one up. It's not every day that you can hold a watermelon in the palm of your hand and then eat it in a single sitting! By yesterday afternoon, the orange seedless and the Ambrosia cantaloupe that I bought were also gone. I guess I'll have to head back to the market this Saturday for some more...

Posted by Tim at July 29, 2004 12:33 PM