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The Melon
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About The Melon
Product Description Melons are the vegetable garden's crown jewels--and Amy Goldman's lifelong passion and calling. Her new book, THE MELON, will entice and educate, whether you are a passionate gardener, a locavore, or simply delight in the inherent beauty and evanescence of the fruits of the vine. THE MELON was produced by Amy Goldman in collaboration with celebrated photographer Victor Schrager over the course of nine years. It's a cut above their award-winning melon book MELONS FOR THE PASSIONATE GROWER, published in 2002. In the intervening years, Goldman has grown as a gardener and has learned a lot more. She has taken advantage of recent research findings that informed her thinking on crop history and best cultural practices. THE MELON includes additional horticultural groups of melon and gives watermelon--which is less genetically diverse--more of a fair shake. Much like the word "cantaloupe," which is used colloquially and erroneously by Americans to describe muskmelon, the word "melon" is commonly used in the United States to refer to both melon and watermelon. These vining crops belong to two different species within the Cucurbitaceae or gourd family of plants. Melon and watermelon are now among the world's most important vegetable crops. The 125 varieties illustrated and described in THE MELON comprise 85 melons and 40 watermelons from all over the globe. Their stories are as diverse as the melons themselves. In addition to the stunning portraits and beauty shots and detailed descriptions of melons, THE MELON includes in-depth sections on picking and choosing melons and watermelons in the market, growing them in the garden, and saving pure heirloom seeds. Mouth-watering recipes by renowned cookbook author Mindy Fox complete the journey from seed to table. Honored by the American Horticultural Society in 2020 as one of the "TOP THREE" gardening books. Review WITH SHORT, COOL summers and wet clay soil, my Vermont garden offers only one of the essentials melon cultivation requires: lots of room. Quel tragique, a French gardener might say, for even a hasty glance at the fruits -- 85 melons and 40 watermelons -- included in Amy Goldman's The Melon will have readers seeking a warm, sunny garden plot with well-drained, sandy loam. While The Melon is large and lavishly illustrated enough to be considered a "coffee-table book," that label would be a disservice because it is also informative, well-written, concise, and clear -- in fact, a first-rate reference book. Tucked between photographer Victor Schrager' s gorgeous, seductive portraits of each melon are carefully researched variety descriptions and histories, advice on growing, primers on saving seeds and hand pollination, and a complete list of seed sources. There's even a thorough explanation of how to tell when melons are ripe, which, reminds us that what you pick is what you get: Melons do not get sweeter off the vine. Goldman trialed 125 melons over nine years on her Hudson Valley, New York, farm. All are stable open-pollinated (OP) varieties whose seeds breed true (produce plants identical to their parent). Most are also heirlooms and date back a century or more. Selected for particular traits-usually by gardeners in a specific region-their seeds have been faithfully handed down from one generation to the next. Eagle-eyed readers may notice that some inclusions have far shorter histories. These varieties, such as the green-fleshed 'Fordhook Gem', are known as "created heirlooms," stable OP varieties developed after 1945. (The year 1945 marks the year hybrids began to be widely used by farmers and home gardeners.) In addition to throwing light on a favorite fruit, The Melon is also a plea for preserving heirloom and OP crops. Goldman is a longtime mainstay of Seed Savers Exchange (www.seedsavers.org), the preeminent seed preservation organization in North America. And who wouldn't want to save flavorful fruits with names like 'Collec
