Melon - Kherson Market

Cucumis melo
75 Days

This Ukrainian landrace melon produces large fruits that average just over a kilogram in weight. Their rind is thick and flesh colour is varied, with orange, green, yellow and cream-white colours that appear either on their own or in combination. Flavour is variable as well, and seems to be correlated to flesh colour. To my palate, the orange-fleshed fruits have more of a cantaloupe taste, green fruits lean into galia territory, and the yellow and cream colours are more reminiscent of tropical melons. All of them are totally delicious!

The fruits are ripe when their yellow colourings have mostly changed from pale lemon yellow to a deep golden colour. A note about seed colour - some of the melons have white seed and others are more of a golden yellow, so the seed you receive will be two-toned.

Our original stockseed came from the Experimental Farm Network, who got their sample from the USDA and had them grown out by Lina Bird of the Ujamma Cooperative Farming Alliance. They were originally collected from a farmer at the Kherson farmer's market in southern Ukraine in August 1982 by two researchers, Dr Kay H. Asay and Dr. Melvin D. Rumbaugh from the USDA and Utah State University.