Museum for a Melon

The watermelon, long associated in the American mind with southern summer seed spitting contests, sweltering hot days, and ants paddling in rivers of pink juice on the creaky old picnic table, is native to Africa.  It was part of the Egyptian scene by 2000 BC and may well have grown wild throughout much of the continent, including the Kalahari desert.

It is only fitting, then, that there's a Watermelon Museum in China.

( Like that segue?)

China, as we are all painfully becoming aware, grows more of everything than any other country on earth, including watermelon. ( Turkey is a very distant second in watermelon production.)  A  small area in DaXing province has held a watermelon festival yearly since 1987, and the province grows 1/3 of all the world's watermelon, apparently. The museum in Panggezhuang Village  opened in 2004 and features over 170 different watermelon varieties, watermelon art, info on growing and harvesting, plus "the world's largest watermelon," whether in waxwork effigy or oozing on a pedestal we do not know.

The Japanese have been growing square watermelon in glass frames for decades now, and yellow watermelons, seedless watermelons and mini perfectly round watermelons are becoming commonplace. And for more on all this see the website of the National Watermelon Promotion Board.

For The FOOD Museum's exhibit on watermelon click here.

ps  True to its name, the w.melon is 92 % water,  but it also is vitamin rich and packs lycopene, an ingredient that supposedly has many health-giving qualities...

Comments

[KathyF]

Why isn't there a watermelon museum at the foot of the Sandias, hmmm? Maybe you all could open one.

[Cynthia]

I think okra is the most widespread of the foods from Africa, after watermelon. Grains of paradise come to mind as another export. And if we count beverages, Africa is right up there -- coffee and kola nut.

[Foodie]

Well, exhausted from melon/gourd botanical wrangling, Cynthia, perhaps it's easiest to accept that melons, gourds and cukes are all members of the Cucurbitaceae or cucurbit family.
Right?
What I like best about the watermelon is its African birth-- relatively few plants derived from that continent have thus far had wide impact.Okra comes to mind, as does tef..

[Foodie]

Thanks for the try, Clouds---we are on "page" 46 at the moment--it's all alphabetical and we are Food Museum.
I just noted that there is no description of us and only one pathetic vote. I am emailing to see how to add a description.

In any event, VOTE for us and tell your friends how to find us......theng kew.

[Cynthia]

Being true to part of its name, by being mostly water -- because it's not a true melon, it's a melon-like gourd. (A few botanists describe it as a type of melon, but most say "gourd" or "melon-like gourd.")

That has been one of my favorite food discoveries of recent years.

But then, one of the joys of botany is that a lot of things aren't what they're named, or don't quite fit anywhere, or avoid labels of any sort.

It's kind of like the debate on what is a pumpkin, another elusive definition within the gourd family.

But the museum sounds like fun -- and I am always amazed at how many things have ended up growing in China.

[Trinity]

Those are interesting facts! When I was pregnant I couldn’t get enough watermelon and now that my daughter is one it is her favorite too.

[Cloudzilla]

I am trying to vote for you (best food blogs) but there appear to be sixty-six pages worth of food blogs alone, all apparently in random order.

I can't seem to find you to save my life. Am I doing something wrong?