My guess is when you think of watermelon you think of rich, red, juicy sweetness and summer because what could be more satisfying than a slice of cold watermelon on a hot day? Watermelon is a fruit that has captured us: from candy to ice cream to drinks to accessories and home decor — watermelon themes are everywhere. But what most of us rarely think about is a fruits’ journey from its wild roots to our domestic tables. In this case, it was a particularly long, labored, and circuitous route to becoming summer’s iconic fruit.
5000 Years of History
The watermelon is actually a large berry produced from a trailing vine, originating in Africa — whether it’s from the northeast, western, or southern part is a point of contention. However, Harry Paris makes a convincing case for it being from northeastern Africa in this fascinating National Geographic article. According to Paris, it’s likely that the humble and less delectable ancestor of our current watermelons was cultivated for use as a portable water reservoir is arid areas such as current-day Egypt and Libya. Watermelon seeds and paintings have been found in ancient settlements and tombs from as long ago as 5000 years. Unlike most fruit, watermelon has a durable shell and can last for weeks or even months if stored in cool, dry, shaded areas and was therefore useful on trade routes or long journeys. Watermelon’s wild ancestor was small, round, hard and likely bitter — in other words, not very like the ones you enjoy today except for the part about water.
It’s theorized that trade spread the watermelon to the Mediterranean and from there to India and then China. It later spread to Spain and then the rest of Europe. European expansion, colonization, and slavery brought the watermelon to North, Central, and South America. Of course, millennia of selective breeding had, by that time, turned the watermelon into something enjoyable as well as useful.
Watermelon History in the US
In the US, watermelon is widely cultivated and is the most popular melon based on consumption. Its history here dates to 1576 when Spanish settlers started growing it in Florida. British colonies in Massachusetts were growing it by 1629. In Island at the Center of the World, author Russel Shorto writes of its impression on a Dutch settler by the name of Adriaen van der Donck circa 1644:
‘He was intrigued by a local fruit he called “cicerullen, or water-lemons” (i.e., watermelon), which grew “the size of the stoutest Leyden cabbages,” and that had “a light-textured pulp like a wet sponge in which the pips are embedded. When really ripe and sound, it melts away to a juice as soon as it enters the mouth, and nothing remains to spit out but the pips. . . . they are so refreshing and often served as a beverage.”’
Watermelon as Racist Trope
But it has the most baggage of any fruit in America due to the insidious stereotype of watermelon loving African Americans. We’re in a historic moment, particularly in the US but also around the world, where the Black Lives Matter movement has shone a light onto the systemic racial problems that have existed for hundreds of years. While this is not the forum for a comprehensive discussion on this stereotype, it’s important to acknowledge that conscious racism led to this racist trope and how damaging it has been/can be even if you were unaware of its historical roots. I’ll let this brief excerpt from The Atlantic sum it up:
“But the stereotype that African Americans are excessively fond of watermelon emerged for a specific historical reason and served a specific political purpose. The trope came into full force when slaves won their emancipation during the Civil War. Free black people grew, ate, and sold watermelons, and in doing so made the fruit a symbol of their freedom. Southern whites, threatened by blacks’ newfound freedom, responded by making the fruit a symbol of black people’s perceived uncleanliness, laziness, childishness, and unwanted public presence. This racist trope then exploded in American popular culture, becoming so pervasive that its historical origin became obscure. Few Americans in 1900 would’ve guessed the stereotype was less than half a century old.”
There’s a lot more to be said on this topic and I encourage you to learn more about it as we all continue to challenge our own stereotypes and biases. Let’s question all previously held conventional truths, from something as trivial as a fruit to something as critical as criminal justice reform and policing. Yes, sometimes the things you’ll learn will make you sad, angry, and uncomfortable; change is uncomfortable but progress is not made by being comfortable and standing still.
Art Combe’s Ancient Watermelon
In early 1920’s Art Combe found an ancient vessel while exploring an ancient sandstone cave in Arizona and it contained red watermelon seeds. He was the perfect steward for this special find since he was an avid plant breeder, seed saver, horticulturist, and artifact collector. Of the seeds from the vessel that he planted, about a dozen grew and produced distinct fruits with a crookneck or handle. He believed that ancient Native Americans bred the watermelons for this trait so they would be easier to carry. Although Art spent decades breeding out the trait for handles, it seems to be tenacious so we can still find some of these unique watermelons. Today there are some small gardeners or farmers who specifically select for the crooknecked shape which are likely the closest to the original melons Art grew from the found seeds. No one knows how old this type of watermelon is but it’s incredible that this ancient fruit is not lost.
Bradford Watermelon
The Bradford watermelon was developed by Nathaniel Napoleon Bradford around 1840 by crossing a Lawson watermelon with a Mountain Sweet watermelon. This watermelon is said to have amazingly sweet and fragrant flesh and a very soft rind. Although by the 1860’s the Bradford was one of the most popular watermelons in the south, it eventually fell out of favor because it couldn’t be shipped due to its soft exterior. Varieties that had better shipping prospects were developed and became mainstream. The last commercial crop of Bradfords sold was in 1922. Luckily, every generation of the Bradford family has continued to grow these watermelons and to save the seeds until Nat Bradford, 7th generation, started growing them commercially again in 2013. I’d love to try one of these heritage watermelons but they must be picked up in person…Maybe I will end up in South Carolina in August one year🤞🏼.
Lastly, an American currently holds the Guinness world record for the heaviest watermelon: Chris Kent of Sevierville, Tennessee at 159 kg (350.5 lb) on 4 October 2013.
1200+ Cultivars Worldwide
Despite its popularity in the US, until the 1940s, it was hard to find watermelons in good condition at grocery stores. Melon lovers had to grow their own (which tended not to keep for long), purchase them from local grocers supplied by truck farmers, or purchase them from roadside produce stands. They were not uniform in appearance, were not mass-produced, and were highly seasonal. Today we have access to watermelons all year round and though the varieties commonly sold in grocery stores are fairly predictable and consistent, it leads us to think, incorrectly, that they are the only types of watermelon in existence.
In fact, there are 1200+ cultivars worldwide and 300+ cultivars here in the US. There are watermelons like the one above, called Moon and Stars, which have beautiful speckling on the outside and are vividly orange on the inside. There are a whole range of watermelons with different rind colors and patterns. Watermelons with flesh color ranging from the typical red to pink to yellow to white and varying degrees of sweetness. I would love to be able to try some heirloom varieties one day because as much as I love watermelon as I now know it — there might be interesting varieties out there that I would appreciate even more.
I think seed saving and crop diversity are important so I’m thankful for companies that maintain heirloom seeds like some of the ones you can see below. I’d love to grow my own watermelons, but for now, I lack the outdoor space to do so. If you have the space and interest, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds sells the Art Combe watermelon seeds and other interesting varieties.
How to choose a great watermelon
Watermelons don’t continue to ripen once picked so it’s important to pick a properly ripened melon to avoid disappointment. Below are some of my favorite indicators of melon perfection:
1. Spot on bottom: there’s a spot on the bottom where the watermelon rests on the soil which usually ranges from white to light green to pale yellow/cream. The more yellow or cream the spot, the riper the melon.
2. Size vs weight: when choosing a watermelon, heavier is better than large size since it indicates dense juiciness. A lighter melon might be dried out inside 😢.
3. Green vs dried stalk: look at the stalk or the point which the watermelon would have been attached to the vine — a dried or brown stalk indicates ripeness. A green stalk means the melon was harvested too early and may not be ripe.
4. Brown webbing: this may not be as common today with the picture-perfect melons you find in the grocery stores, but if you find a melon with spiderweb-like marks on it it should be very sweet because these marks indicate the number of times bees pollinated the flower. The melon may look less pretty but it will taste great!
5. If all else fails — there’s an app for that! Apps like iWatermelon and Melon Picker are supposed to help you choose a properly ripe watermelon.
In 5000 years watermelon went from a hard and bitter fruit used for practical purposes to something that’s beloved around the world. It’s the third most consumed fruit in the world (by metric tons), following only tomatoes — which has the advantage of being used in innumerable savory dishes, and bananas — which have the advantages of being easy to ship and available year-round as they’re not seasonal. It’s therefore not an exaggeration to say that this humble fruit out of Africa has come to dominate the world 🌍.
What other fruits might be brought out of obscurity and onto the world stage? Is commercialization a gift or a curse — for the flavor profile or for the environment? As a fruit enthusiast, I’d love to have more access to interesting and amazing fruits but as an environmentally conscious person, I don’t want this access to have come as a cost to anyone/anything else. Maybe the two are not mutually exclusive…a girl can dream ✨.
Fruitfully Yours,
Yen
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