Author Topic: I absolutely love watermelons. (Read 1830 times)

briarpatch · « **on:** May 25, 2011, 05:09:32 PM »

Its that season again and I eat a lot of watermelons. A small piece just makes me mad. I need a quarter or half of a big one.
The problem I have found is that the old melons like the Charleston grays and jubilees are no longer sold. To me they were the best.
The melons I get now are just the generic seedless or one with seeds neither has the taste of the old heirlooms.
I dont raise my own so this is not a garden thing.

Hooker · « **Reply #1 on:** May 25, 2011, 05:36:00 PM »

Nothin beats an ice cold Black Diamond and sharp pocket knife on hot summer day.

Pat

PowPow · « **Reply #2 on:** May 25, 2011, 05:40:13 PM »

My dad had a 20 acre patch one summer when I was in high school, so it was all you can eat.
I prefer mine room temperature; I think it makes them taste sweeter.

streak · « **Reply #3 on:** May 25, 2011, 06:39:37 PM »

Quote from: Hooker on May 25, 2011, 05:36:00 PM

Nothin beats an ice cold Black Diamond and sharp pocket knife on hot summer day.

Pat

Hooker,
Now your talking! Black Diamonds were some of the best melons that my grandpa and my one of my uncles used to raise on the farmland in N.W. Louisiana/ E,.Texas! Those were good eating along with the Congo reds and yellows. We also enjoyed the Dixie Queens, and another
striped melon that was long and they always called it a "Sugar melon". Years ago they used to have "Watermelon Gardens" that you could go to and have melons that were kept in coolers and sit at the big tables and have slices of the melon of your choice! On a hot summer night that was hard to beat!!

Old Fart · « **Reply #4 on:** May 26, 2011, 04:34:32 AM »

Shoot! Now I want watermelon.....

rockbilly · « **Reply #5 on:** May 26, 2011, 08:46:52 AM »

I grew up in a farming community; we raised 200 acres of melons every year, most years the field was sold before the crops were laid by. Big chains would buy them and haul to their stores for re-sale. Needless to say, us kids still took advantage of the situation and ate all we wanted. There was an ice cold spring near the patch, we would get two or three melons and put them in the spring early in the morning, that afternoon we pulled one out, dropped it on the ground, reached in and took the heart and had our fill. After the stores left my cousin and I gathered the culls or what was left, took them to town and sold them, the money was used to buy our school clothes. Those were the good old days.

Mostly we raised Black Diamond and Congo, we also had several acres of cantaloupes, I love them too. We had all the corn, peas, beans, okra, squash, taters and greens we could eat and canned plenty for the winter months, it was sure better than what you get today.

briarpatch · « **Reply #6 on:** May 26, 2011, 11:41:23 AM »

Do you guys find it hard to get melons like we used to? Those that were so sweet you could eat all the way to the rind.

DDZ · « **Reply #7 on:** May 26, 2011, 12:12:16 PM »

Quote from: briarpatch on May 26, 2011, 11:41:23 AM

Do you guys find it hard to get melons like we used to? Those that were so sweet you could eat all the way to the rind.

Yes I have found also, that it is very hard to get good melons like we did years ago. I don't know if its because most are of the seedless variety. Although I have ate seedless melons that are good, but are rare. The walmart in my area has crates full of melons now, but I have come to the point of not buying them anymore, because there is about a 90% chance it would just get thrown out.

XD40SC · « **Reply #8 on:** May 26, 2011, 12:30:56 PM »

My summer diet consists mostly of watermelon and ambrosia strain sweet corn. Much to my wife's dismay.

Hooker · « **Reply #9 on:** May 26, 2011, 02:27:09 PM »

When my Mother In Law was still alive she would make pickled watermelon rinds and watermelon jelly.
That way I could enjoy the taste of summer time year round.

I use to go and gather cull peaches, pears, apples and watermelon and feed to the deer on my lease.
I got the fruit for free cleaning up under trees and cleaning up fields. Deer like watermelon as much as I do.

Pat

The Hermit · « **Reply #10 on:** May 27, 2011, 06:30:14 PM »

Old uncle Bill used to put a couple watermelons in the tank with the station cans of milk and boy that was fine eating on a hot summers day. Miss uncle Bill, aunt Marion and that good farm food too. Thanks for bringing back some of the old memories.

The Hermit

streak · « **Reply #11 on:** May 28, 2011, 11:57:46 AM »

Many times in the early fall, when my daddy and I were squirrel in E.Texas, on our way back out of the woods around 11:00 0 11:30 A.M. we would be walking quite aways back to the truck and had to cross a few watermelon patches. My daddy would find a nice melon that had been in the shade all morning and would drive his fist right through the middle of the melon and split the melon into. We would each take a big chunk of the heart of the melon and start eating it as we continue our trip back to the truck, the melon was still very cool from the night temperature and delicious and really quinched the thirst! I guess the deer , racoons, possums, and other wildlife appreciated us leaving them a ready made meal!!

powderman · « **Reply #12 on:** May 28, 2011, 12:32:53 PM »

I remember many years ago some kids I grew up with would wait til nightfall to steal a few melons from a big patch. The farmer made quite a few rounds with his dbl bbl 12 ga and he was a challenge to them that they relished. One night they crawled through the fence and were crawling along searching for just the right melons they crawled into a nest of yellowjackets. The farmer laughed his butt off as they ran screaming through the patch. We guessed they were yellowjackets couldn't see them. POWDERMAN.

Sourdough · « **Reply #13 on:** May 30, 2011, 10:02:01 AM »

I was just telling the wife last week, we do not get good watermelons here in Alaska. They must pick them green or something but they are bitter and just not sweet. I miss going to the road side stands where the farmers sold their produce. That is where we always got our water melons, cantaloupes, and honey dews as well.

briarpatch · « **Reply #14 on:** May 30, 2011, 02:38:22 PM »

The roadside stands had some of the best produce you could find. Most was fresh from the gardens. They would have a big watermelon cut so you could see they were good.

steg · « **Reply #15 on:** May 31, 2011, 04:50:45 PM »

it's just like with tomatos, they've been bred for their shipping and holding qualities, they couldn't care a bit about how they taste, we have one truck farmer around that stll grows a passable tasting watermellon, but even his tomatos are thick skinned and tasteless, I can't grow my own anymore i'm to old, body is anyway, but I sure miss the home grown old timers, they were sure good ....steg

Spirithawk · « **Reply #16 on:** May 31, 2011, 05:03:19 PM »

My old Granny swore a watermelon wasn't fit to eat till the 4th of July. We'd get a big one, cut it in half. She'd eat half and me the other half.

Back then they'd cut a plug out of a melon before you bought one to show how ripe they were.

gr8ful · « **Reply #17 on:** May 31, 2011, 06:40:38 PM »

We still get good ones here in central LA at the roadside stands. Black Diamonds and Sugartowns are the best!

rockbilly · « **Reply #18 on:** June 01, 2011, 06:14:32 AM »

As I said in my first post, we always raised a large field of melons. That said, seems the best tasting melon is one “obtained” under the cover of darkness from someone else’s patch.

An old man that lived down the road always had 8-10 acres of melons, we kids would raid his patch several times a year just to hear him cuss and rave. Several times he came out with a shotgun and threatened to shoot, I don’t think he ever did. One year he put a sign up that said, “selected melons have been poisoned – take at your own risk” I don’t think they were, but I do know he treated some with croton oil……….that would keep you busy for a day or two.

I bought a melon over the week-end, like most said; it was OK but nothing to write home about. They are not as good as they were as a youngster. And no where near as large. I seen one many years ago in MS that went over 90 pounds, I didn’t eat any of it, but those that did said it was as good as any melon they ever had.

powderman · « **Reply #19 on:** June 01, 2011, 07:10:31 AM »

ROCKBILLY. The biggest I ever saw was raised right down the road from me last summer, it was 85 lbs. I have no idead what kind it was. POWDERMAN.

Avyctes · « **Reply #20 on:** June 01, 2011, 07:42:16 AM »

My Dad told me a story that one time he and his younger brother I believe it was, snuck into a watermelon patch where they grew up in Baileysville, WV. Said they were sitting right in the patch eating the old man's melons and the old man came out onto the front stoop of a sudden and shot at them with a shotgun. Hoho! Now that's a man serious about his eatin' melons! Willing to risk life and limb!

Another cute story was when my Dad and Uncle stole two of my Grandma's best laying hens, took them to some old guy and traded them for a jug of moonshine and got rip roaring drunk. They woke up when my Grandma found them with the empty bottle and had already noticed her hens were missing. She made them go back to the old man and get her hens back after she finished beating on them with a switch. Killer!

spikehorn · « **Reply #21 on:** June 02, 2011, 03:50:07 PM »

Quote from: Hooker on May 26, 2011, 02:27:09 PM

When my Mother In Law was still alive she would make pickled watermelon.

Pat

Pat now I really want some of my mothers watermelon rind pickles. She's to old to be able to make them any more God bless her. I bet it's been 10 years since I've had some. Me and none of my sisters can seem to make them as good as mom did.

LAREDOBOB · « **Reply #22 on:** June 03, 2011, 05:29:01 AM »

My Grandson cannot stand to be near a watermelon. The taste, the smell all get to him. Poor guy must be one in a Billion. Everybody likes watermelon (except Josh).

powderman · « **Reply #23 on:** June 03, 2011, 06:05:16 AM »

We bought a seedless at kroger yesterday, not good at all, was not ripe. Very disappointing. POWDERMAN.

Avyctes · « **Reply #24 on:** June 06, 2011, 04:24:16 AM »

Nice cookout at the inlaws yesterday, have to say my wife's mom had cut up what was probably the tastiest, sweetest, wateriest, reddest and over all winningest watermelon I've ever sunk my durn teeth into. If I was stranded on a meteor, alone with my thoughts and missing all the good stuff of this old Earth, the taste of yesterday's watermelon would haunt me night and day.

BUGEYE · « **Reply #25 on:** June 06, 2011, 05:04:14 AM »

I told my wife that if I ever get to where I can't eat watermelon, just rub it on me.

briarpatch · « **Reply #26 on:** June 08, 2011, 06:04:16 AM »

Avyctes and Bugeye, You are real men, my kind of men.

Avyctes · « **Reply #27 on:** June 09, 2011, 03:55:11 AM »

This is a great thread, I never knew we could be so watery eyed over watermelon! I loved the BugEye's comment, classic!

BUGEYE · « **Reply #28 on:** June 09, 2011, 05:11:14 AM »

my grandfather on my mothers side was a sharecropper and I spent many summers with them.
grandpa raised a large elongated dark green melon, I don't know the name, he picked them right at daylight and put'em in real long grass under some big trees. about 2 oclock he came in from the field, watered and rested the horses and cut one of those meloms. nothing Better!!!!!

btw, when we took the wagon and team to town on saterday there was still a wagon yard where you could water the horses and tie up teams and saddle horses.
grandma made me ride in the wagon, going, but coming home granda let me walk the wagon tongue and climb on a horse. this forum sure brought back some grate memories.

briarpatch · « **Reply #29 on:** June 09, 2011, 07:44:55 AM »

I think the watermelon represents the shade tree, long hot summer days, family, playing hard and enjoying each others company. When you cut one of those big suckers it was a family thing. It was not a one man show.
we cooled melons in the spring house, creek, river, lake, shade and just get em and eat em.
bugeye you are right it brings back memories of our youth and the good times of summer.
I have bought 3 already this week from a produce place and they would melt in your mouth all 3 were just great.