I drove to Cave City for some melons Saturday. It was almost a fight. They are running a little short of melons because the major grower got wiped out about 3-4 weeks into the season. Blight got his crop. Represented half the usual harvest for Cave City.
So stands are putting limit of five per person. I only wanted 3 for my daughter, next door neighbor and us. I ended up with two yellows and a red. Not many were taking yellows so they were glad when I took two.
I did not really care. We cut into our yellow tonight. It was delicious.
Anyone have a preference between red and yellow? Why?
Hope and Cave City argue over who has best melons. As a kid, I would take care to feed neighbors dog on Fair Park Blvd. They were from Hope. My pay for a week of care was two Hope melons. Pretty good. Cave City melons are good, too.
I just picked up a truck load of reds last Tuesday for our food pantry, going back tomorrow for a load of yellows. I love both, and and have had all the melons from those locations before but I’m partial to Scott melons, they are the best I have had, but they are all great.
always been a red…did not know that there were yellow ones…now that we’re in the process of moving to Mountain View…may have to head over to Cave City and check them out…what stand did you buy them at Clay?
Sir Luskimo,
Do they still have impromptu gatherings of native musicians (from all over) around the square in Mountain View, and is the Jimmy Driftwood barn still in operation during the COVID pandemic? Have a neighbor who is into (plays, etc.) bluegrass music but had not heard of Mountain View. Appreciate any information that you can provide.
Black diamond reds have always been my favorite, mainly because I grew up on them. But a good yellow is tasty to.
Poppin Bottoms farmers on the Ar River in Ozark grew some dandy’s.
the Driftwood Barn is still there and yes the people still gather at the Stone Co. Courthouse square to play…haven’t really had a chance to explore or know anything as we live in NLR now and are trying to make repairs(improvements)painting and other stuff before we move in …so we’re only up there 2 days a week…hope to be moved in fully by Labor Day
Watermelons from between Walnut Ridge and Portia (appropriately from the Hoggard farm) are a big part of my summertime memories from years gone by. They had both yellow and red melons.
My opinion, it’s a visual thing/preference. I had a class 30 years ago and discussed this with the basic premise being that chemically there’s not much difference between reds and yellow melons, just a genetic expression like a white vs brown puppy. We are eating on a red melon this week.
My parents get their melons from Fountain Hill area for years, and they are really good. It’s something about that soil up there between Hamburg and Monticello. Similar to Bradley County tomatoes.
Thanks to luskimo for the information about Mountain View.
Regarding the comment by Jimbeau about Black Diamond (red) watermelons, I have always considered them to be the very best. However, they are now almost impossible to find. I asked a farmer one time why and he told me that economically for a grower they produce fewer melons per acre (and I think that he also said there is some problem with exposure to direct sunlight). Haven’t had a yellow watermelon in some time, but as I recall I (thought I) detected a little less “full bodied” watermelon taste with the yellows as opposed to the reds.
I’ll take red every time. In HS and college I worked in the produce department at Wiengartens Pine Bluff then later became produce manager. I unloaded many, many truck loads of watermelons. We typically bought ours from Louisiana. We’d drop them on purpose and eat them on those hot days. I got my fill and could not eat watermelon for a few years after. I’ve not found a lot of good watermelons in Chattanooga or tomatoes either. Arkansas produces sweeter watermelons and tastier tomatoes for sure.
I don’t remember the yellow ones, and as kids to get in “football” shape, we’d haul/pitch watermelons in the Portia area. I should remember as we would miss a few each day tossing them, lol. It seemed I found a better summer time job after those 8th/9th grade years.
BatonRouge, you are correct on the black diamonds being grown anymore. You always got less melons per vine. But some of those baby’s weighed upward to 40-50 lbs.
As young teenagers we would get summer jobs picking, loading those big melons. Line up and pass em down the line to the trucks carefully. About every hour someone would drop one (on purpose or not). Those dropped ones never went to waste. Worth every minute of the butt chewing from the farmer, lol
