Melons for the Passionate Grower

Amazon.com Price: $40.68 (as of 10/11/2019 02:36 PST- Details)

Description

This year’s heirloom tomato is a melon!

Acclaimed gardener Amy Goldman, known to viewers of Martha Stewart and PBS, is a dedicated seed saver working to preserve fast-disappearing varieties of heirloom melons. Her book, Melons for the Passionate Grower, is a party of the speckled, bumpy, oh-so-sweet world of the melon—from Minnesota Midget and Georgia Rattlesnake to Ali Baba and Sweet Siberian.

Here she profiles a couple of hundred varieties, each showcased in a full-color photographic still life recalling eighteenth- and nineteenth-century botanical paintings and engravings. Goldman also offers expert advice on cultivating and selecting your own melons, in addition to the rudiments of seed saving.


Your local market probably carries only honeydew, cantaloupe, and watermelon, but it is the heirloom melons of the world that contain both remarkable succulence and the critical germ plasm that may ward off future plant diseases. Amy Goldman’s tribute to the magnificent family of melons, Melons for the Passionate Grower is both a celebration of the rich gifts of these fruits and a cautionary tale of how many of these treats nearly went extinct.

Before you get too caught up in the gorgeous photos and fascinating histories of these gems, note the seed company list at the end of the book–you’ll be able to try to grow the entire plants you read about. The introductory section includes detailed instructions on hand pollination, ripening, and a couple of recipes like watermelon salad with onion, pepper, oil, and vinegar along with the sweet melon.

The pages that fall in the middle are mini temples devoted to individual melons. Ceaselessly romantic histories are included next to the glossy photos–who can resist tales of the Hungarian noble who wrapped her beloved sweet melons in her furs? With varieties like the slender, crunchy Snake and the astonishingly sweet Bidwell Casaba, learning about these glorious fruits will keep you fascinated for the remainder of your gardening days. –Jill Lightner

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