Watermelon Chasers

Have I mentioned before that one of Bill's main hobbies is checking out other produce farms?  When we lived in Australia, we took several trips specifically to see other produce farms, making it a "trip" along the way by taking a few days to get there.  We typically stayed with friends of friends, making it an adventure on several levels!

Well, this time we did it with a 14-month old. 

Bill received a call from a grower in Texas saying that they were harvesting.  Two days later, we were headed there to check out their operation.  Eli did surprisingly well during the 6 hour drive south.  The fact that we stopped for homemade, fresh-peach ice cream on the way didn't hurt.

Is there anything better than homemade ice cream?

Yum!!  He kept coming back for more!

We were a little worried about how much they would let us see on the way down there.  But, once we arrived, we quickly realized these people were great!  We took a little walking tour through their packing shed (the building where harvested watermelons are brought in and "handled" -- in this case, stickered, sorted by size, and packed into bins.)  This farm grows 500 acres of watermelons each year and helped develop the "Red Diamond" seedless variety that pretty much rocked the world of watermelon growers a couple of years ago.  It is the melon that we raise and sell locally.  They're like practically Watermelon Royalty!  ;)  Did you know, they actually have a Watermelon queen that is crowned each year at the National Watermelon conference?  I totally missed my calling (no talent required!).  ;)  Anyway, back to the point...

One of their several stores.

After a quick tour, the "lead" farmer in charge of it all drove by and asked us to jump in his truck.  He even had a carseat in his truck for his grandson.... perfect for Eli!  He took us on a very confusing and BUMPY trip through his fields, showing us his irrigation (watering techniques), weed control methods, and even his wild hog fence (all parts of successful watermelon raising!).

See how sandy the soil looks?  Pretty amazing they can raise sweet melons on it!

The trip was very informative and we enjoyed getting to meet fellow watermelon growers!

Let's just not talk about the bad wheel bearing that put a sour twist on the trip home.  Bill's sweet dad came and rescued us from our roadside state... Eli was NOT happy about being in the car so long!

Let me know if you know of any other farms we should check out!  ;)

Love!