Watermelons......
"A Summertime Traditional Favorite"
by: Bobby McDonald
What do Tom Watson, Charleston Grey, Jubilee, Black Diamond, Garrisonian, Carolina Cross, White Seed Watson, and Oklahoma Sweet, all have in common? They are varieties of watermelons, and range from varieties of the traditional red-meat treats with seeds, to yellow-meats, and even seedless melons. Southern Hopkins County and Northeast Texas has always been known as a great place to grow watermelons.
The deep, sandy soils of Southern Hopkins County are ideal for the growing of watermelons and almost any summer, you can find a roadside market offering the traditional favorites, grown from a nearby watermelon "patch." The watermelon is one plant that thrives during the hot, dry weather, of summer, as they have a very deeply developed root system and can maintain their moisture levels to survive, the intense heat.
I personally have an affinity for the watermelon patch, as I spent my formative years, with my father commercially raising watermelons. Our entire world revolved around when the watermelons were ripe! There was the preparation of the soils, the planting, the cultivating, turning of vines, pruning, and finally the "window" of harvest in the hot summertime. Our fields were in Southern Hopkins County and we marketed our crops to local stores, as well as loading tractor-trailers with the melons going for nation-wide shipments. Watermelon farming was a hot, dirty, and tiring business, but the rewards was "bustin' open" a big, juicy watermelon, beneath the shade tree and enjoying the delicious fruit, as the juice ran down your arms!
Texas is one of the leading watermelon growing states and averages about 40,000 acres of watermelons grown each year. That amounts to some 640,000,000 pounds of watermelons produced in our state.
Local watermelon producer, Larry Clark, of Reilly Springs, displays his melons
at a roadside stand, beneath a shade tree, on Highway 154-South.
Some of my fondest memories involve taking watermelons to the Ice House, on Oak Avenue Street, in Sulphur Springs, and leaving a load of watermelons to become "ice cold!" One of the "coolest" summertime treats are ice cold watermelons.
In the City of Yantis, a trailer sits loaded with watermelons by longtime Northeast Texas Watermelon Producers, Mark Coker and his family. Coker has developed a marketing strategey of "the honor system," where folks leave their $2.00 per melon in a lock box. "Certainly, we lose a melon every now and then, but I still want to think that most folks are still honest," expresses Coker. "We don't have much of a problem with people not paying for the melons that they get!"
By having the "self-market" stand, Coker can continue to complete his field work and delivery of melons to the stores that he services. It free's me up to get my work done and not have to stay with the stand, during the day, and allows for twenty-four hour service at the stand," states Coker.
Are you hungry for an ice cold watermelon, yet? Drop-by one of the stands and enjoy one of the traditional summertime favorites in Northeast Texas, and get an extra one for the lake or to enjoy tomorrow!
______
