MELON MANIA

Laura Avery

Mirror contributing writer

   O fleur de tous les fruits. O ravissant MELON!
(16th Century French monk referring to the Charantais melon)
   It’s melon season in California. Middle of summer, hot days, cool nights – perfect ripening conditions for the sixteen-plus varieties of melons available at Farmers’ Markets throughout California. Hybrids and heirloom varieties abound, each with different flavors, textures and personalities; and samples are available from most farmers. Melons need extreme heat to ripen properly – however on very hot days melons can become overripe on the vine and will take on a waterlogged appearance as. These should be avoided. 
   How to choose melons – generally, good melons should seem heavy for their size. Melons contain 94 percent water and six percent sugar, so they are low in calories and can be consumed without guilt even on the strictest diet. Heft a couple of melons that look the same, and choose the heavier. A ripe melon should smell like the fruit itself and in the case of cantaloupes should have no green showing on the skin. There is no excuse for seeing a green cantaloupe at this time of year, and farmers insist that they only pick when melons are fully ripe. Cantaloupes and netted melons do not ripen after being picked, and should be refrigerated when they are brought home. Muskmelons and cantaloupes form a separation layer in the stem that pulls away from the fruit when it is fully ripe on the vine. A ripe melon is picked at "full slip" – when the stem separates easily from the fruit leaving a disc-shaped indentation in the stem end. Do not buy a cantaloupe that has the stem still attached – it was not picked ripe. Melon seeds are edible. You can dry and toast them in the oven.
   Netted melons, also generally known as summer melons, include the cantaloupe and muskmelons. Winter melons or smooth melons include Casaba, Crenshaw, Persian and Honeydew melons. Cantaloupe or muskmelon?? Both are varieties of the same species with similar flavor but with different characteristics. 
   CANTALOUPES are named for the town of Cantalupo near Rome. They are round with a golden, tightly netted skin. They are firmer and easier to ship than 
   MUSKMELONS, which are more oval with a loose netting and pronounced grooves running lengthwise, more delicate and usually larger than Cantaloupes. 
   HONEYDEW – Smooth, greenish-white skin with green flesh. Ripe Honeydews are sticky to the touch, and sometimes have brown speckles which indicate sugar. They do not give off a fragrance when ripe.
   CRENSHAW – Slightly wrinkled golden yellow skin with orange flesh. A Casaba cross, it has a strong, spicy aroma and usually weighs at least five pounds. Not easy to find, so grab one when you find it!
   CASABA – Hybrid variety, oval shaped with wrinkled green skin meeting at a pointed end. Extremely sweet orange flesh, usually weighs four to seven pounds. 
   SHARLYN – Premium variety melon that is a variant of the Persian melon. Looks similar to a cantaloupe with yellow-orange skin and creamy pink-white flesh with sweet cinnamony flavor.
   OGEN – Cantaloupe variety that has green skin with orange grooves and green flesh. Commercially developed in kibbutz Ha-Ogen in Israel, it is also called an Israeli melon. A smaller sized melon.
   GALIA – Netted tan skin with green flesh. Related to the Ogen, named after the daughter of the man who raised it. Larger than the Ogen.
   CHARANTAIS – French melon, green skinned with characteristic lengthwise grooves of the muskmelon and orange flesh. Often comes in small, single-serve sizes.
   AMBROSIA – Cross between Cantaloupe and Crenshaw. Looks like a Cantaloupe. Orange flesh and very sweet.
   PERSIAN – Large Cantaloupe-type melon with softer skin and flesh. Looks like a Cantaloupe. Golden yellow with fine netting and orange flesh.
   ROCKY SWEET – Looks just like a Cantaloupe but has green flesh. Tender and tasty and very juicy.
   HONEYLOPE – Cross between Cantaloupe and Honeydew, has smooth white skin with golden tinge when ripe. Orange flesh. Sometimes called an "Orange flesh Honeydew."
   CANARY – Small oval melon with bright yellow skin and white flesh. Flesh will be bland unless fully ripe.
   SANTA CLAUS - Elongated, wrinkled, dark green skinned melon with darker green flecks. White flesh. Delicious.
   BUTTERSCOTCH – Something new from Weiser Family Farms – a green flesh melon with orange swirls!
   WATERMELONS – Explorer David Livingston found Watermelon plants (called kenwe or keme) growing wild in the Kalahari desert in 1850, thus proving the Watermelon’s African origins. Watermelon leaves and seeds have been found in tombs in Egypt, but it probably arrived in Europe with Arab migrations. Watermelon was presumably first transported to North America on African slave ships and the first written record of its cultivation in Massachusetts in 1629. To select a ripe Watermelon, look for a soft waxy shine on the skin. Farmers know to pick Watermelons only when the leaf nearest the fruit has dried and dropped off the vine. You will find Yellow-flesh (which actually precedes the Red flesh), and Orange flesh as well as seedless and "mini" varieties of Watermelons at market this summer.
WATERMELON 
Summer’s loud laugh
Of scarlet ice
A melon
slice