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Sorry Watermelons

Started by Tom, July 05, 2009, 07:46:21 PM

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CHARLIE

Tom, a good picture with your digital camera would be worth a thousand words.  Send them a picture of the inside of that green melon.
Charlie
"Everybody was gone when I arrived but I decided to stick around until I could figure out why I was there !"

Tom

That's a good idea!  I told Momma that you weren't all that dumb. :D

Fla._Deadheader


CR has "Farias". Open markets in near every small town. Growers have open stalls or string a tarp from their trucks, and sell right out of the truck, with a display for folks to pick out what they want.

  I'm sure that anything that does not get sold or is past ripe, goes to the hogs.

  Living down here is pretty much the same as when I was a young lad. Nothing much is wasted.

  I wouldn't trade it for anything. Just wish my kids would wise up and come visit. Might open their eyes  ::) ::) ;D
All truth passes through three stages:
   First, it is ridiculed;
   Second, it is violently opposed; and
   Third, it is accepted as self-evident.

-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

Dodgy Loner

Quote from: DanG on July 07, 2009, 11:13:50 PMWhat we think of as a "Farmer's Market" today is little more than a flea market for gardeners. 

For the most part, I would say you are right. Most of the folks who sell produce at our local markets are retirees who earned their pension doing something other than farming. However, if you get into the larger cities, you can definitely find farmer's markets where the farmers actually make a living at what they do. Most of them are managing small acreages very intensively, and consider themselves "organic" or "naturally grown". There is a husband and wife here in Rabun County who sell at the Morningside Market in Atlanta (2 hours away), and they're supporting themselves on only 2 acres of land. They may not have 2000 acres of cotton and a $200,000 combine, but if they're making a living by putting seeds in the ground, who are we to say they're not farmers? :)
"There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey." -John Ruskin

Any idiot can write a woodworking blog. Here's mine.

DanG

Now I didn't say those people weren't farmers, just that their markets are not like the markets of old.  My Sister and her Hub make their living that way too, and they are very much farmers.  To look at their operation though, you would probably call it a garden.
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

Chuck White

Watermelon prices here are rediculous this year!
At the Walmart store yesterday they had bins of the round, seedless melons that varied from 6 to 8 inches in diameter for $4.99 each.
If the rind was completely removed, they would probably vary from 4 to 6 inches, well that's not much more than the size of a softball.
Last year, we could buy them that size for 49ยข each.

I guess we're on a watermelon free diet this year!

Chuck
~Chuck~  Cooks Cat Claw sharpener and single tooth setter.  2018 Chevy Silverado and 2021 Subaru Ascent.
With basic mechanical skills and the ability to read you can maintain a Woodmizer  LT40!

ErikC

  My mom and dad have 3-4 acres they raise for farmers markets. A lot of berries, and everything else you can grow in a garden around here pretty much. A lot of work goes into it that's for sure. Dad is retired, but they started before he was. They make some money at it, and the produce is without question the best available anywhere in our area. They always sell out, there is often a line before the market opens so people can get what they want.
Peterson 8" with 33' tracks, JCB 1550 4x4 loader backhoe, several stihl chainsaws

Dodgy Loner

Chuck, I highly doubt the watermelons you bought last year were seedless watermelons.  Seedless watermelons are from hand-pollinated hybrids and the seeds cost about $0.20 apiece.  They must be started indoors under specific temperature and moisture conditions to ensure proper germination, and the vines are less vigorous and produce less fruit than regular seeded melons.  Normal 'Sugar Baby' watermelons seeds can be purchased 4 for a penny. That's why they're so much cheaper than seedless melons.  Even so, I have a hard time seeing how any farmer could make a profit if the retailers were selling their melons for $0.49 each.
"There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey." -John Ruskin

Any idiot can write a woodworking blog. Here's mine.

SwampDonkey

Quote from: Raider Bill on July 07, 2009, 12:31:51 PM
My Mom used to can watermelon rind pickles. Boy were they good. When I cut into last weekends melon I thought that you could use the whole thing in the pickle making process.

I've had those also. First from dad's aunt in Massachusetts and mom made a few after getting the recipe. I liked them very much, but up here in the north everything is cucumber or tomato based as far as home made pickles and you can't change that.  :D :D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

SwampDonkey

Quote from: Dodgy Loner on July 07, 2009, 02:57:34 PM
The underside of a ripe melon will be yellow - a light green color indicates that it's not ripe.

I use that method with my winter squash. Also, a dull colored one that has lost it's shine is going rotten and won't keep.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

SwampDonkey

Quote from: Tom on July 07, 2009, 04:07:53 PM

I think the accountants must have gotten hold of the industry.  While I think that money has always driven the economy, I had the impression, when I was little, that real goal was to make sure that everyone had all the melons they could eat.  Today, it seems that there must be some kind of balance between the melons grown and keeping the price up, forgetting the following of the customer.   Both ways probably net the farmer the same profit, but the old way sure made for happier people.


Just like the lobster fishery here, the fishermen get about $3.50 a lb and the super markets never dropped the price on the shelf a dime, they still want about $12 a lb and the price at the wharf has been rock bottom for over a year.  They continue to artificially inflate the price at the store as if it's rare and pay the fishermen rock bottom prices with the line we are over supplied. They can't loose when extortion is legal. ::)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

bd354


  Around here the coyotes destroy every watermelon they can find. Very seldom is one eaten, usually they just go along and bite one plug out of each melon. I don't plant them anymore. It drives the gardners crazy around here. One guy put poison in one melon and then couldn't remember which one. Course he does drink a little. It doesn't seem to matter if the melons are ripe or not, they get them all.

JAMES G

Crows will destroy watermelons also those dang @#$#@# will go right threw a field and peck holes in every one they can find :'( >:(

Modat22

I tried one of those so called "Sweet Seedless" mellons last week and couldn't finish it. The taste to me was sort of like an over ripe cucumber with little white specks throughout the thing (I assume those where seeds).
remember man that thy are dust.

Dodgy Loner

I had a seedless watermelon from Wal-Mart last week, and it was absolutely delicious. The only other time I tried a seedless watermelon, the taste was sweet, but the flesh was soggy and disappointing. I think there's an art to growing seedless melons, and not all the the farmers who grow them have artistic ability ;D
"There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey." -John Ruskin

Any idiot can write a woodworking blog. Here's mine.

LeeB

I just remebered that we bought a melon for the 4th and put in the refer in my shop. I need to call Lindy and tell her to get it out and eat it. It surely won't be good by the time I home.
'98 LT40HDD/Lombardini, Case 580L, Cat D4C, JD 3032 tractor, JD 5410 tractor, Husky 346, 372 and 562XP's. Stihl MS180 and MS361, 1998 and 2006 3/4 Ton 5.9 Cummins 4x4's, 1989 Dodge D100 w/ 318, and a 1966 Chevy C60 w/ dump bed.

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