Watermelon

Who don’t like those big Green fruit which is so refreshing, juicy and sweet. The best watermelons are in the middle of the summer. I like it the most in the sunny, hot day when I take it out from my fridge and make fresh, cold extremely good drink. But… did you ever try to find the history of this fruit? From where it comes from? Is there only one type of watermelon ?

The first historical record of Watermelons under cultivation are from Greece 5,000 years ago.  The fruit is thought to have originated in the Kalahari Desert area of Greece. According to food historian, John Martin Taylor, the early Greek settlers introduced the method of pickling watermelon to Charleston, South Carolina.

Funny is that watermelon is actually a vegetable and not a fruit. It is also related to the pumpkin or the cucumber. Watermelon is considered to be an anti-inflammatory.  It is said to help calm inflammation that occurs because of asthma, arteriosclerosis, diabetes, colon cancer, and arthritis.

Types of Watermelon

Some watermelon types have higher sugar content and are sweeter than others. Some of them have different colored rind and flesh. Most of us are familiar with the oblong dark green watermelon with vibrant ruby red pulp, but melons may also be light pink, yellow and even orange. Size of watermelon can be small like 5 pound and start to be like to a monstrous for 200 pounds.

There are four basic types of watermelon: seedless, picnic, icebox, and yellow/orange fleshed.

Seedless watermelons were created in the 1990’s for those of you who don’t think spitting melon seed is fun. Seedless melons include:

Queen of Hearts

King of Hearts

Jack of Hearts

Millionaire

Crimson

Trio

Nova

Another watermelon type, the Picnic, tends to be larger, from 16-45 pounds or even larger, perfect for a picnic gathering. These are the traditional oblong or round melons with a green rind and sweet, red. Some varieties here include:

Charleston Gray

Black Diamond

Jubilee

Allsweet

Crimson Sweet

Icebox watermelons are bred to feed one person and are much, much smaller than others.

Lastly, we come to yellow/orange fleshed watermelon, which are typically round and can be both seedless and seeded. Some varieties:

Desert King

Tendergold

Yellow Baby

Yellow Doll

As you can see, there are plenty of watermelon options out there to experiment with in the garden. Maybe you even want to try and grow a square watermelon next!

So, are you sure that was Greece people who first create watermelon?

Solution: