26lb Pink-Fleshed Watermelon (and a 45lb Monster Melon)

It’s another watermelon round-up.

Are you tired of watermelon posts? I’m not. And none of us are tired of eating all these melons, either! It’s been the sweetest summer ever.

First, here’s a 26lb dark green melon Ezekiel pulled in last week:

It was sweet, with large seeds, but not very sweet. The flesh was pink, and looked like an older cultivar from the Middle Ages:

Note the swirls and less red in the melon. It was fully ripe, it’s just not as modern. Ezekiel thinks this one contains genetics from Art Combe’s Ancient Watermelon. The seeds are very black, though, so it’s hard to say.

Along with that beauty, we pulled in a very large watermelon which may be a pure Carolina Cross:

And here’s the inside:

Though it looks a bit weird, it was perfect and sweet. The internal structure sometimes is strange when you have giant fruit.

This project has been very entertaining so far. The sheer variety of fruits was worth the price of admission. Every melon is an adventure! We don’t know if they’ll be pink, yellow, red or orange inside – and the flavors have had some surprises as well.

Which reminds me, I need to get Ezekiel and go hunt the Grocery Row Gardens to see if we have any new ripe ones.

(If you want to join the watermelon landrace fun, Ezekiel has some seeds here.)