organicgardener.com.au^39
C
elebrated US gardener, author and advocate for
heirloom fruits and vegetables, Amy Goldman,
has sprung a surprise upon us with her second
book on melons released just this month. Her first was
Melons for the Passionate Grower (2002) and her second is
titled simply The Melon. It is an expanded and refined
version, and is again filled with luscious photos from
Victor Schrager, capturing the beauty of 85 melons and
40 watermelons from all over the globe.
“Melons are a life-long love and calling. They stir
passions and memories in me,” Amy writes in the
introduction to her new book. “When I taste the cream
of the crop, I can picture my parents swooning over
similarly luscious fruits at meals during my childhood.
Lillian and Sol were melon mavens: Mom had a thing for
watermelon while Dad went for green-fleshed casaba.
Paul, our Italian gardener, gave me lessons on how to
sow melon seeds in the greenhouse, when to usher plants
out into cold frames, and which techniques to use in the
open field. I have so many happy memories of melon-
filled summers.” Planting her first vegie patch at the
family home on Long Island in the US at the age of 18,
Amy has carried on the family passion ever since.
Amy’s new book isn’t really a surprise, being nine
years in the making, but more on the book next issue.
Here’s a taste with edited versions of two of her evocative
heirloom melon profiles from The Melon.Zatta (main picture)
I’m crazy in love with this melon, which clearly belongs in the
Prescott family of cantaloupes. Plants throw off an
occasional ‘Early Frame Prescott’ type.
Zatta is Italian for cantaloupe (plural zatte). This variety
may taste even better than ‘Prescott Fond Blanc’ — but must
we quibble? When overripe it can be dry and cottony, I admit.
I am fascinated by the unusual fruit colour change as Zatta
matures. Unlike ‘Prescott Fond Blanc’, whose skin goes from
whitish green to light-yellow when ripe, Zatta turns from dark-
green to orange-yellow or yellowish orange. Pierre Joseph
Jacquin in his Monographie Complete Du Melon (1832) was
right: the more green-black the cantaloupe’s skin in youth,
the more intensely yellow orange it becomes at maturity.”
‘Zatta di Massa’ is named for a town in central Italy where
these melons grew and matured near the sea. The variety is
also known as ‘Zatta Arancina’ (orange-colored Zatta) and
‘Melone Cotogno’ (quince-tree melon). It was described in
1828 as the least warted, and the most yellow orange of
the various Zatte by Moretti and Chiolini.
People love to call this cantaloupe ugly. As early as 1972,
Glecklers Seedmen, of Metamora, Ohio, catalogued it as
‘Mr. Ugly Muskmelon’. In their words: “From Italy. One look
at the fruit and all agree they are the most horrible looking,
with their deep ribs, big warts and rough all over; look like
the rough looking Japanese Squash. But the salmon-netted
flesh is so sweet.” Italians call it ugly but good.Collective Farm Woman (above)
‘Collective Farm Woman’ is small but packs a ton of
goodness. Add her to your list of must-have melons. The first
time I tried one, I had low expectations. The whole fruit is as
hard and dense as a baseball — and gives off only the mildest
fragrance when ripe. As with a can of ground coffee, the first
clue to its goodness comes when you open it and inhale.
‘Collective Farm Woman’ is floral and crunchy and sweet.
I gnawed it right down to the nub.
This melon originated in the arable soil of Ukraine, a soil
once bloodied by the purges of Stalin: millions of farmers
and others perished from starvation, mass execution and
exile. When the farms of Ukraine were collectivised, many
traditional food crops were lost, making the taste of this
melon both bitter and sweet.
Kent Whealy of Seed Savers International (a project of
Seed Savers Exchange) obtained seed during one of three
collecting trips to the former Soviet Union undertaken
between 1991 and 1993. Marina Danilenko, the proprietor
of Moscow’s first private seed company, supplied the goods.
As you may have guessed,
her source for the melon was
none other than a woman from
a collective farm.This is an edited
extract from The Melon by
Amy Goldman with photos
by Victor Schrager (Simon &PHOTOS: VICTOR SCHRAGER Schuster, 2019, $50)