Melon Bliss
Abby is all to thank for these two weeks of melon nirvana. She's mostly known as the Salad Queen at Valley Flora, dedicating herself for untold hours to the production of Abby's Greens each week. But for years she's also nurtured a passion for growing melons. In our coastal climate, melons are a gamble. For instance: Last year it rained four inches the week after she transplanted all her starts in mid-June and all but a few succumbed to damping off. One year it was perfect, hot, melon-growing weather all summer and then September turned rainy and her just-ripe melons went watery. Some years we simply don't get enough heat to bring on a perfect melon.
Nevertheless, Abby has spent a lot of years trialing different varieties and taste-testing the results and the winner is unanimously a cantaloupe named Sarah's Choice. The stars aligned this year and the melon crop is a stunner. In our household we appreciate the fact that sometimes they crack, or the mice take a nibble, or the skin looks funny. Those are the ones that make it to the kitchen and give us an excuse to eat as much melon as possible while it's here.
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