Watermelon

[mjarrels]

When you drive thru small towns in the Philippines in Nov/Dec/Jan/Feb thousands of watermelons are stacked like canonballs along the road. Cheap at only a handfull of Peso's.

mark

 

[Bird]

Mark, in the early '50s in Marlow, OK, there used to be a guy going up and down residential streets with a horse drawn wagon selling watermelons at the price of two for a quarter. I believe it was 1955 when I saw a 101 pound watermelon at the grocery store, priced at $3.50. I thought it was ridiculous to expect anyone to pay such an exorbitant price for any watermelon, until someone mentioned that whoever bought it would be buying it for the seed.

 

[Larro Darro]

Mark, in the early '50s in Marlow, OK, there used to be a guy going up and down residential streets with a horse drawn wagon selling watermelons at the price of two for a quarter. I believe it was 1955 when I saw a 101 pound watermelon at the grocery store, priced at $3.50. I thought it was ridiculous to expect anyone to pay such an exorbitant price for any watermelon, until someone mentioned that whoever bought it would be buying it for the seed.

Those were the days. Now if you plant seeds from just about anything, it is not going to be the same fruit. But I did plant a row of seeds from a yellow meat we ate last year. Haven't clipped one yet, but they are getting close to ripe. I wonder how they will turn out. But the icebox are putting on more melons than the rest.

 

[Bird]

Bird, I drove by that little farmer's market in Denton last Saturday, but it was a flea market and pretty busy. I guess they have different kinds of markets on different days. There may have been somebody selling produce at the flea market, but they were obscured by all the booths selling junk and googahs plus a big inflatable water slide for kids.

Jim, I think it's a Farmer's Market on Tuesday and Thursday, then the Denton Community Market on Saturdays. Of course Saturday includes some farm produce, but a lot of other things, too. You might find the story in today's Denton Record-Chronicle interesting. Outdoor Market gets longer season.

The Farmer's Market on the other days doesn't seem to be doing as well this year as in the past. We were by there about 11 a.m. this morning and there were only 2 vendors and no customers.

 

[jinman]

The Farmer's Market on the other days doesn't seem to be doing as well this year as in the past. We were by there about 11 a.m. this morning and there were only 2 vendors and no customers.

That seems to be the case with the fruitstands along Hwy 287 in N. Wise County and Montague County. They used to be open every day with lots of cars out front. Now, they hardly ever open and don't do big business when they do. Most of the produce they sell is higher than the stores. Sure, it doesn't taste as good from the stores, but it's convenient and pretty. There's a big difference between edible produce and marketable produce. It seems people only want it if it's cheap, convenient, and pretty.:confused3: The one produce place that's doing well in Bowie, is near the main street, in an air conditioned portable building, and run by a young girl. Her produce is good and at competitive prices too.

 

[Larro Darro]

:confused3: The one produce place that's doing well in Bowie, is near the main street, in an air conditioned portable building, and run by a young girl. Her produce is good and at competitive prices too.

Ok, I could stand in the hot sun and pay some old farmer too much for bad looking produce, or go inside the AC, where some good looking girl has nice produce for good prices. Wonder which place I would stop.

 

[Bird]

There's a big difference between edible produce and marketable produce. It seems people only want it if it's cheap, convenient, and pretty.

Very true, and I'm guilty of the same thing. But volume is another consideration. We usually buy one or two tomatoes at a time at the grocery store, and they're pretty cheap. We do sometimes buy tomatoes at the farmer's market, but they have the little boxes of at least 4 or 5. They cost more, ain't quite as pretty, but taste a lot better. You know we grew a lot of blackeyed peas, but never planted any of the purple hull peas. But twice I've bought a one quart ziploc bag, not much more than half full, of already shelled purple hull peas at that farmers market for $5 a bag. They were obviously picked and shelled very early; very young peas. Not cheap, but so delicious cooked in the crockpot with some finely chopped onion and cubed ham that I figured they were well worth it.

 

[Ed of all trades]

Sitting here reading posts and eating watermelon I just cut up
Honestly I think watermelon ranks up there with bing cherries and bacon as some of Gods food!
:thumbsup:

I started reading this and was reminded to get some watermelon from the fridge, thanks. Now how about the recipe for the bing cherries and bacon, sounds tasty.:licking::licking::laughing:

 

[jinman]

Ok, I could stand in the hot sun and pay some old farmer too much for bad looking produce, or go inside the AC, where some good looking girl has nice produce for good prices. Wonder which place I would stop.

That's exactly right in town, but the fruitstands on the sides of the highway used to attract a lot of travelers who never went anywhere near to downtown. The last few years, I heard the growers/fruitstand owners complain that they were having a hard time finding people to pick stuff for them. Sound familiar? The cheap labor pool is drying up. Most of these farmers are in their 70s. So, if they can't hire help, their crops and businesses are toast. It's just the way it is.

 

[Bird]

I thought roadside stands were a thing of the past, or almost so at least. Before the days of the Interstate Highway system, they were common along U.S. 77 in southern Oklahoma for peaches, watermelons, apple cider, honey, etc. And over around Rush Springs, lots of stands for watermelon. At one time, I guess before the invention of the watermelon thresher, there were stands along the road where you could stop and eat all the watermelon you wanted . . . Free; just had to put the seeds in the bucket since they were raising them for the seeds.

I think maybe the last roadside stand I stopped at was to purchase ears of corn along U.S. 220 just south of Sayre, PA, in 1993.