Nothing compares to the sensation of biting into a sweet juicy slice of melon on a warm summer’s day. These wonderfully luscious fruit satisfy in so many ways. Their cool succulent flesh quenches the thirst whilst providing us with taste sensations unlike any others.
But if you are relying on supermarket watermelons and rockmelons then you’re missing out on experiencing an incredibly diverse and tantalising range of flavours and textures found only in heirloom melon varieties.
Melons are extremely easy and satisfying to grow producing huge, delicious fruit in just a few months. Unfortunately melons have often been overlooked by Australian backyard gardeners, particularly in the southern states, where the climate has been widely regarded as too cold to produce good quality fruit. I was absolutely delighted to disprove this theory last season by growing an abundant crop of delicious heirloom watermelons and rockmelons at our trial gardens in Dromana, Victoria.
I trialed seven varieties of watermelons and eight varieties of rockmelons, all of which produced ripe fruit in well under three months. The seeds were direct sown in the second week of November ensuring that the emerging vines did not have to battle through any of the un-seasonally cold patches that seem to be becoming more frequent during the spring. It is possible that in the past sowing seeds early to provide a longer growing season for melons has actually hindered their growth in cooler areas. My experience has shown that holding back seed sowing until a bit later in the year means healthier, more vigorous plants that soon catch up to those planted earlier and ultimately produce better quality fruit. Last seasons vines relished the warmth of the sun and the rich well fed soil that supported them.
The rate at which the flowers were produced matched the growth of the vines. Plenty of bees meant good pollination but flowers can be easily hand pollinated if needed. The bursting forth of the fruit was the really exciting part. Such an amazing variety of shapes, sizes, colours and textures began to appear. Forget your boring old supermarket round ball rockmelon, these lot were defying any of my pre-conceived ideas of what a melon should look like. The fluted squat shape and thick bumpy skin of the Prescott Fond Blanc made me wonder if I’d planted pumpkin seeds by mistake. But the wonderfully heady sweet melon aroma of the ripening fruit soon convinced me that this was no pumpkin. The Yellow Canary rockmelon shone like a beacon of gold and the Moon and Stars watermelon never failed to amaze me with its incredible galaxy of markings.
Moon and Stars weighed in at over 8kg with juicy pink flesh inside a thick rind almost too beautiful to cut into. The Blacktail Mountain provided a staggered yield of dark coloured thick-rind fruit with rich red delicious flesh. The thick rinds of Moon and Stars and Blacktail Mountained ensured good storage qualities.
The aroma of the ripening rockmelons on a hot summers day was almost intoxicating and the flavours of the fruit didn’t disappoint. For me the Ha-ogen and the Ananas provided the greatest taste sensations and proved to be quite addictive. Each produced good numbers of fruit and the Ananas kept providing ripe fruit into April, the last of which suddenly seemed so precious after such a bounty. All of the rockmelon varieties produced abundant fruit with the Minnesota Mini topping the list with an average of 18 sweet spheres per vine.
Melons can be quite versatile and our abundant harvest again tested the creativity of the chefs in our Fork to Fork restaurant. Melon salsa became a popular accompaniment to hot dishes and delicious salad combinations were produced. Best of all was the wonderful variety of sorbets and icecreams. At the March St Erth festival hundreds of glasses of icy cold melon punch were served.
So this year make sure you set aside an area of your garden to grow a few of our beautiful and delicious range of heirloom melons. You will be helping to save these treasures from extinction and I’m sure you’ll agree that the reward will be well worth it.
Footnote:
This season’s trials will be of interest to all of us gardeners who continue in our quest for the perfect combination of backyard tomatoes to satisfy our every culinary need. Last season I trailed over 40 different varieties, some Digger’s favourites and some rediscovered heirlooms. Valuable data was collected on taste, appearance and culinary suitability but several plants were affected by wilt and yields were relatively low.
I have been experimenting with green manure and bio-fumigant crops over winter and plan to trial another round of tomatoes in an adjacent area. I will therefore be able to assess the characteristics and yield of the various tomatoes, as well as checking for the effectiveness of the green manure crops in conditioning the soil and managing common problems like tomato wilt.
