{"id":45383,"date":"2013-08-26T07:58:33","date_gmt":"2013-08-26T14:58:33","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=45383"},"modified":"2013-09-25T09:57:03","modified_gmt":"2013-09-25T16:57:03","slug":"local-watermelon-farm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cookiesandclogs.com\/local-watermelon-farm\/","title":{"rendered":"Perry & Sons Had A Watermelon Farm, E-I-E-I-O"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Have you ever thought about how watermelons grow?\u00a0It’s normal to know how strawberries, tomatoes, and even cucumbers grow. But, somehow, that just doesn’t happen with watermelons. We see it, think “Mmm, watermelon!”, then eat it. That’s it. When I received an invitation to visit a watermelon farm, I was more than slightly intrigued. Safeway knows that fresher is better and to get fresh you need to go local<\/a>. So began my field trip to Perry & Sons<\/a> farm.<\/p>\n Bright and early on August 13th (I woke up at 5am, yawn . . . ), our bus departed San Francisco and we headed out to Tracy, CA. There we picked up a few more guests, including third generation watermelon farmer, Art Perry. Originally from the Azores island near Portugal, the family-run operation began back in 1925 and has worked with Safeway for the past 60 years of that.<\/p>\n The fact that Safeway has such loyalty with local farmers says a lot to me, in a good way. It was also impressive to see just how close Art and Safeway Produce Merchandising Director, Steve Tsujimoto, were. I guess 34 years of partnership can do that do people.<\/p>\n Art put most emphasis on building relationships. That’s how they continually acquire land to farm and continue to do so, through their relationships with neighboring farms. According to the Perry family, the best type of soil to grow watermelon in is new, virgin land.<\/p>\n Once watermelon is grown in a field, they do not use it any more. Instead, pumpkins are planted next and then other crops like corn, wheat, and tomatoes are rotated in. Watermelon is a tricky fruit\/vegetable to grow but we could tell how passionate Art was about the labor of love.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Seeing watermelons in the different stages of development was really very interesting. I could NOT believe that a baseball-sized watermelon reached full-size in only four weeks! From seed to being fully ripe it’s only about 90 days total – and these plants are massive!<\/p>\n Art’s right-hand man, Paul Gomes, skillfully sliced open some VERY fresh watermelon. Surprisingly, it was actually cool inside. The temperature drops significantly in the evening here and the watermelon can retain that temperature for quite some time. Wow, nothing like sweet, cool, fresh watermelon. The resident bees agreed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Our tour broken down into five stations with different watermelon-inspired treats at each one. My favorites had to be the watermelon salsa (with corn, black beans, bell peppers, etc. but no tomatoes) and the prosciutto-wrapped watermelon (great balance of sweet and salty). Another surprise was the drink with watermelon blended finely with rose vinegar.<\/p>\n
\nCourtesy of Terry VanderHeiden<\/span><\/p>\n