MELONS
Melons have always drawn culinary raves, and who can resist the allure of an icy watermelon, so bursting with scarlet goodness that it splits asunder with the merest insertion of a butcher knife? Unquestionably watermelons take pride of place in this foodstuff category, but other types of melons certainly have their place. There’s even one widely grown “melon” that was historically popular through much of the region that isn’t even consumed. This is the Queen Anne’s pocket melon or “plum granny,” a miniature melon with an incredibly alluring aroma.
Among those offering tasty temptation to the Appalachian palate, in addition to old-time watermelons such as Georgia Cannonballs and Charleston Greys are cantaloupes, honeydews, and muskmelons (often called mushmelons). All are sweet, all contain considerable water, and all are meant to be eaten fresh. You can freeze melon balls but they require considerable space and don’t come close to matching the fresh version. Melons can also be used creatively in drinks.
WATERMELON WITH SALT
TIPPER’S STORY
My parents, Pap and Granny, loved watermelon. Pap would bring one home and put it in the creek to cool. Then of an evening we’d take a knife, some towels, and a salt shaker to the back yard to eat that sweet goodness. We’d spit seeds and talk while the stickiness ran down our arms. Sprinkling watermelon with salt really brightens the flavor.
JIM’S STORY
Grandpa Joe loved watermelon to an unbelievable degree, and many of my favorite summertime memories revolve around eating it with him. In early summer he’d sometimes buy a melon, but the sandy soil in the lower portion of his sprawling garden situated alongside the Tuckaseigee River was perfect for their growth. Whether store-bought or home-grown, one cooled in a wash tub where a chunk of ice taken from the ice box floated in water was pure heaven. We’d have seed spitting contests and his free-range chickens loved those moments, scrambling to get every seed as soon as it touched the ground. The moisture of the melon and liberal sprinklings of salt replenished and refreshed after hours of arduous work hoeing corn or performing some other garden chore.
—Celebrating Southern Appalachian Food written by Jim Casada and Tipper Pressley
I could eat my weight in watermelon…well at least I try.
I love it so much that I eat watermelon pretty much every day during the summer months and sometimes I even buy them in the winter.
I like cantaloupes too and we had a dandy one last night that a sweet viewer gifted us with. I can never eat cantaloupe that I don’t remember a story I heard Frankie Chastain tell about her and her husband L.C. eating cantaloupe sprinkled with pepper on one of their first dates. They are both gone from this ole world but they were like family to Pap, Granny, and the whole bunch of us.
You can find mine and Jim’s cookbook here.
Last night’s video: Planting Fall Turnips, Scary Dolls, & Dreaming is Part of the Fun.
Tipper
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REBECCA I CAN RELATE TO ALMOST EVERYTHING YOU SAID/WROTE. MY DAD ALWAYS PUT SALT ON HIS WATERMELON SLICES. WE WOULD BUY THEM FOR 50 CENTS THERE IN ASHEVILLE N C . NOW HERE WHERE I LIVE I CANT AFFORD TO PA $6.95 FOR A WATERMELON. SO I HAVEN’T HAD ANY FOR 4 OR 5 YEARS. DAD PASSED IN 2001. I AM 83 AD HOPE TO BE 84 IN MARCH NEXT YEAR (LORD WILLING). I NEVER USE SALT ON ANYTHING BUTN I USE PEPPER. BUT I NEVER HEARD ANYONE USING PEPPER ON CANTELOPE. WHEN MY WIFE WAS ALIVE SHE WOULD BUY A CANTELOPE I WOULD CLEAN IT OUT CUT IT IN HALF AND FILL IT FULL OF VANILLA ICE CREAM. THANKS FOR YOUR STORY.
Watermelon is one of my favorites too. I remember not getting them until around at least July 4th and so excited for them. My dad liked to put salt on watermelon and pepper on the cantaloupe too. Someone said cantaloupes nowadays do not taste like they did when they were growing up. I agree with that and have said the same thing in the last couple years. They just are not the same. I tried growing three hills of cantaloupes this year. Today I noticed there is one which has really gotten some size on it. I think I planted them way too late. There are a bunch of little ones on the vines but I do not know if they are actually going to grow to maturity. I’m leaving them just to see what they will do. Love reading these stories about these summer favorites.
In my experience a muskmelon is a darker and looks like it is covered in a net. A cantaloupe is more yellow and smoother skinned. Most muskmelons are spheres whereas cantaloupes might be elongated and/or have pronounced lobes. My experience with all types of produce comes from dealing with them for almost 40 years while working at a wholesale grocery distributor.
Happy, Happy Birthday!
Hope your day has been filled with lots of love and happiness!
I love watermelon too, sprinkles with salt and I always eat my cantaloupe sprinkles with pepper!
Happy Birthday Tipper!
I have never liked the taste of watermelon. But l love cantaloupe sprinkled with salt and pepper.
Your fond memories of eating watermelon are so very similar to mine and definitely share your love their taste. We are eating about one a day of the small round ones. Live them and miss them the most when the season has ended.
My Pa raised a variety of watermelon that was the best I have ever eaten. I was just a kid and didn’t learn – or retain – the variety name. It was small, dark green, and had the reddest fruit I’ve ever seen in a melon, with very few seeds.
As I’ve aged, my stomach has come to disagree with melons of all sorts. They bloat me fiercely, but I still eat a little on occasion.
My Dad always grew lots of watermelons when I was growing up. Some summers there were so many that he gave them away to whoever came by. His favorite was Charleston Greys. No watermelon that my husband & I buy now tastes as good as those that Daddy raised!
Being from a large family we always had watermelon to eat in the summer, maybe two or 3. It probably didn’t last too long with seven, up to nine children and 2 to 3 adults to enjoy it. When we lived in the city it was an extended family occasion, because we all lived next door, or in the neighborhood, and everyone would gather and chow down on the watermelons. When I even think about eating a melon my mouth starts watering and I have to get one. I’ve got one in the fridge right now and can’t wait to have it sometime today. Happy birthday to Miss Tipper today. May you have many, many more in good health, prosperity and a happy, happy heart. Everyone have a great week and God bless y’all.
I have wonderful memories of eating watermelon at home. That was one of the highlights of summer. We always ate it outside and mama let us make all the mess we wanted to and yes, we always put salt on ours. My husband and I tried one of the smaller varieties like I have seen you eat Tipper, and I will have to say it was delicious!! So sweet!! We went back to get a couple more the other day and they were gone. Apparently, we are not the only ones that like them 🙂
Try celery salt on cantaloupe! It’s delicious
Watermelons don’t taste as good as they did when I was growing up. Folks back in eastern KY used to raise banana muskmelons. I tried to find some of the heirloom seeds without much luck. The seeds I bought on eBay produced melons that didn’t look or taste like the ones I remember from my childhood. My favorite melon is the honeydew. I haven’t heard why they have become so expensive and hard to find in the last few years.
My Dad liked cantaloupes with brown sawmill gravy on them for breakfast. My 97 yr old Mom said when she was a child, she stole a watermelon from a neighbor & did everything she could do to burst the watermelon, but it wouldn’t crack or burst. She even through it up in the air. Does anyone know what it could have been? She said it looked like a watermelon. Tipper, what is the difference between a cantaloupe & a muskmelon?
Cheryl-I’m not sure 🙂 I’ve heard cantaloupes called mushmelons but there may be a different melon too.
I would guess it was a citron. We use to have some come up each year as volunteer. Mother would make citron preserves not pickles out of the “hard white meat”. Most people consider them good for nothing,I have heard that deer won’t even eat them. I think mushmelons are different from cantaloupes.
It could have been a Citron. They look like watermelon.
There was a nice produce stand in Chicago. Northside, right by my grandparents. A nice watermelon on the front porch with my Grandpa is a lovely memory. He always let me try and plant a few seeds in the little garden by the garage. Of course it never worked. So long ago but I remember it clear as day. Thanks Tipper!
Everyone’s watermelon memories are so interesting this morning. Thank you all for sharing! As a kid, we always ate our watermelon outside, cut in big slices, juices dripping down our arms, and spitting the seeds on the ground. It was usually a special treat on a holiday like the 4th of July. We never grew them.
When I was a child, one of my best friends, Phillip, lived on a nearby farm with this parents and 8 brothers and sisters. I loved that farm. There was never a dull day. Of course, the barn was the best and jumping in piles of hay from the loft. But one day Phillips said, “Follow me.” We had just bought new pen knives at the local five and dime. He led me to the watermelon patch! I had never seen one before. In the blazing summer sun, limey green leaves dazzled like water lilies protecting all the melons that looked like floating turtles. Phillip picked one up, dropped it on the sandy grown where it let out a thud and a crack, revealing the intense fruit inside. He got his knife out of his jeans and starting cutting chunks. That was the best melon I ever had! When we got back to the farm his mama wasn’t happy, “You better not have been in that melon patch,” she yelled. “You know they for the farm stand!” He laughed. My father often gave me 50 cents to buy one to bring home. It was tought to balance it carefully in the basket on my bike. They never ever charged me. I think I got to keep the 50 cents, though–wink wink!
I love watermelon. I used to eat watermelon almost every day. Now I have slowed down to every other day. The between days have now been replaced by big Globe grapes plu# 4636. They add a little variety and are almost as good as watermelon.
Salt? No Thank You! Not on watermelon nor apples. Salt is for tommytoes, cucumbers and green onions. Have you ever laid on your back without a shirt, with your bellybutton full of salt and your hand full of garden fresh green onions? Me neither, but I’ve thought about it!
Nothing says summer like a sweet chilled watermelon. Love a good honeydew as well.
My husband’s family had a good friend, Liz who had come from Scotland as a young married woman. One day her husband brought home a watermelon. They had never had one and didn’t know how to fix it. Liz reasoned that it looked like a squash so she cut the rind off and cut it into small pieces which she dropped into a pot of boiling water to cook for supper. She was horrified by the result – gelatinous mess – and told her husband in her broad Scottish brogue, “Don’t ever bring one of those things home again!”
I sure do enjoy a good watermelon too! I only use salt on it if it’s not sweet. The one I had this last time I bought in July from our local Farmers Market. Sadly it just didn’t taste good at all, even with salt. Not sure what the farmer grew it in, but it sure didn’t taste like a watermelon. It’s the first time ever I trashed a watermelon. My husband that it was bad tasting too. The fruit itself wasn’t bad but it sure did taste bad. Plus this year they are so expensive! I couldn’t believe I paid $8 for a watermelon and then it not be eatable. I haven’t bought another one since. If I had room in my garden then I’d be planting some next year for sure.
Richard
My daughter gave my husband and me a larapin good watermelon a couple of months ago. It was one of the best I’ve had for some time time. Red, delicious and tasty. I like watermelons better than muskmelons. Since I’ve had the Covid virus, which is three years ago next month, the muskmelons and some other foods have this awful smell I can’t describe. My husband loves them and buys them all the time. He puts salt on them before eating. If he leaves them out on the kitchen counter or puts them in the fridge, I almost throw up with the smell. We have raised both kinds of melons but not this year. I’m glad because the deer ate just about everything in the garden. My daddy grew watermelons and muskmelons, which we called mushmelons, every year in his garden. He saved the seeds and planted some of them the next year. He also tried growing the seedless watermelons. I don’t think they were as good as the ones with seeds. The flavor was weak.
Yes!!! My grandparents called a melon “mushmelon”! I do not recall what it looked like or the taste. A cantaloupe or honeydew??? Thanks for the memory! Thank you Tipper!!!
I really enjoyed all the things people shared about melon experiences but in my opinion RANDY topped all the comments! It brought tears to my eyes thinking about his grandpap. Anyway, I bought a watermelon that was just wierd from the store. When I threw it in the yard, NOT A BUG OR BIRD WOULD TOUCH IT AND IT ROTTED THE GRASS AWAY!!!! Y’all enjoy the GMO melons! If you’re not buying HEIRLOOM, you’re backing up… lol
Sadie, I didn’t say this in my comment about my about Granddaddy for fear of hurting someone’s feelings. Granddaddy was born in 1888 and was an orphan at 3 years old. He lived his life judging people by what on was on their inside not by the color of their skin. The chain gang was made up of black men. I guess the white chain gangs worked in the cities.
The chain gangs that cleaned the ditches and roadsides in my memories were all white men. Reason being there were no black people around. I was a teenager before I saw a live black person. On TV (after we finally got one) I had, of course. A trustee would fetch water from local homes. He wasn’t shackled to the gang. No locals grew watermelons as mountain hollers are a tough environment for them. Mommy did grow a few mushmelons but I wouldn’t eat them. They smelled of tropical fruit and that smell sickens me. I don’t know why but it does and always has as far back as I can remember. A plum granny is the worst.
We got a watermelon once, maybe twice on a good a year, when some local with a pickup truck would come by peddling them.
This is partially a test. I tried to reply to some comments yesterday and kept get a 403 gateway message. I don’t know exactly what that is but somewhere along the line something had me blocked.
Watermelons and melons in general are non-GMO. They have developed over the years by farmers and gardeners to be what they are today. Occasionally you might get one that is totally inedible but that’s the risk you take when you buy from someone other than the grower.
My two favorite fruits, with cantaloupe being number one. My frig is packed with them as we speak, and I’ll be having them for breakfast with some toast and poached eggs. Yum!
When I was a kid growing up in the 50 and 60’s and living beside of my Granddaddy, we would eat a watermelon and a cantaloupe almost everyday. Granddaddy would plant an acre of Charleston Gray watermelons along with cantaloupes each year. The Charleston Gray watermelon and now the Athena cantaloupe are my favorite varieties. I do eat mine with salt and like to even put a little bit of black pepper on my cantaloupe. I worshipped the ground my Granddaddy walked on, he was one of the finest Christian men I have ever known. He lived his life by the words of the song A Beautiful Life, some of the words in the song are “each day I do a golden deed by helping those that are in need.” In the summertime when the chain gang would be working in front of his house, he would get the guards to let the men take a break and let them them set under shade trees in his front yard. He would give the men watermelons and cantaloupes to eat while they were taking a break. He would also “draw up” buckets of well water and take to them, words can’t describe how good a fresh drawn bucket of cold well water is on a hot summer day. One of our neighbors liked the Congo variety of watermelons. Daddy liked to plant the Moon and Stars variety. Now because of the deer along with the dry weather we now have more often planting a field of watermelons is a losing proposition.
What a wonderful man was your Granddaddy. Thank you for sharing your memories. They are such a delight and fun being transported back through time with your telling. Blessings to all.
Randy, I don’t have a big garden now, but after but retired I had a large one for several years. I got the gallon cans from the church kitchen and sometimes went by the school cafeteria to find them. I punched two holes in the sides, buried them about 4 inches in the ground and planted a seed on each side. About every other day during dry spells I filled the can with rain water I had collected earlier. Well water, creek water and dehumidifier water works good also but not city or county water – it has too much stuff added. I always had melons at least 50% bigger than those in the stores and better tasting too.
After reading today’s blog, I’m craving an ice cold watermelon! The local store has some Charleston Grays in and I’ll probably get one today. My maternal grandparents were from the Greenville SC area before moving to the Cumberland Plateau. Breakfast at their house was always something special for me. My grandma made the best biscuits that I have ever eaten to this very day. Eaten hot and buttered or smothered with her incredible milk gravy, there was no finer food imaginable. When in season, cantaloupe was a staple at breakfast time. One way we ate it was covered with that savory gravy and a liberal sprinkle of black pepper. Has anyone else eaten it that way? I’m telling y’all, it’s heaven on a plate.
I love watermelon so much, but find it so hard to get a good one where I live. I also have memories of having watermelon on my grandpa’s back porch and spittin seeds. That stickiness just running down your arms too. Great memories mingled into some not so good ones too.
Larry, I have lived all of my life in southern Greenville County, SC just a couple of miles from the Laurens county line. When growing up we never ate cereal (corn flakes) or toast for breakfast. My favorite breakfast meal was homemade biscuits, fried fatback and milk gravy made from the fatback grease (called hunky doo gravy in my family). Having a homegrown cantaloupe to go along with this was icing on the cake. In my earlier comment, I mention putting black pepper on cantaloupe. I like to say if I was on death row, this is what I would want for my last meal. I don’t understand why the mom and pop restaurants will not offer milk gravy made from from fried fatback grease, they have fried fatback on their menu.
I meant this reply to be for Larry Eddings, but messed up and was too sorry-lazy to redo my reply.
When the thought of watermelon stumbles into my mind I immediately see a worn and red-stained picnic table, a half-filled plastic pool like you can find at the Dollar General Store, sprinkled with leaves and fresh cut grass clippings. Forty years have gone by since that was a weekly joy but my nose still tingles with the aroma of those broken green blades, especially the ones stuck to the bottom of my bare feet. There’s a well-loved Snapper riding mower sitting nearby and yes, like your family a salt shaker must be on the table. Aunt Betty would sit on one side of the table and serve us glistening red slices and she always closed her eyes after she took her first bite. Doyle would typically enjoy his piece standing beside us. We’d save our seeds on the plate and make designs with them until the lighting bugs got our attention and Aunt Betty was off to find a jar. Thank you for the memories, Tipper.