Posted on 05/19/2015 6:51:40 PM PDT by Theoria
The most luscious watermelon the Deep South has ever produced was once so coveted, 19th-century growers used poison or electrocuting wires to thwart potential thieves, or simply stood guard with guns in the thick of night. The legendary Bradford was delectable — but the melon didn't ship well, and it all but disappeared by the 1920s. Now, eight generations later, a great-great-great-grandson of its creator is bringing it back.
The story of the Bradford begins on a prison ship during the American Revolutionary War. It was 1783, and the British had captured an American soldier named John Franklin Lawson and shipped him off to the West Indies to be imprisoned. Aboard the prison ship, the Scottish captain gave Lawson a wedge of watermelon that was so succulent, he saved every seed. When he got home to Georgia, Lawson planted the seeds and grew a popular watermelon. Around 1840, Nathaniel Napoleon Bradford of Sumter County, S.C., crossed the Lawson with the Mountain Sweet. By the 1860s, the Bradford watermelon was the most important late-season melon in the South.
The Bradford boasted fragrant red flesh, pearly seeds and a rind so soft you could slice it with a butter knife. The fruit was more than just a savory summer treat — its sweet juice was routinely boiled into molasses or distilled into brandy for cocktails garnished with fruit and syrup, and the smooth soft rinds were pickled. Home cooks often turned to watermelon molasses to preserve fresh fruit for the winter.
But the oblong, soft-skinned Bradford was never suited to stacking and long-distance shipping. In 1922, the last commercial crop was planted, and the melon wholly gave way to varieties with tough rinds.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
“Aboard the prison ship, the Scottish captain gave Lawson a wedge of watermelon that was so succulent, he saved every seed. When he got home to Georgia, Lawson planted the seeds”
Ah... a Yankee watermelon!
Always loved the ones my dad called “Rattlesnakes.”
Great story and wonderful people. Thanks for posting.
My family used to grow “Padgett Melons”. They were for family consumption not for sale. Several members of the family grew them. I have no idea whatever happened to them
Around 20 years ago I asked my Great Uncle if anyone still had the seeds and he said “Lige Padgett” did. I hated to admit to him that I did not know who he was. Now I wish I had.
They were basically dark green and almost round. Also very large.
Back then every farmer would mark the largest, prettiest melon with a scratched “X” to be used as seed. I have not eaten one since I was around 10 but they were far, far better than the ones you get in the market.
Garden ping.
Bkmrk.
“When one has tasted watermelon, he knows what the angels eat.”
Mark Twain
A lot of watermelons on NPR!
Bookmark
One of my favorite childhood memories is when my family sat on the patio on a warm summer night passing the salt shaker around to put on our ice cold sweet watermelon slices.
$10 for 12 seeds.
So plant carefully.
Yum:)
The Bradford boasted fragrant red flesh, pearly seeds and a rind so soft you could slice it with a butter knife.
Good post!
I remember thin-skinned watermelons when I was a kid in the ‘50s that came from local farms in New Jersey. Delicious!
When those farms went away, so did the good melons.
Heirloom seeds are my top priority when I can garden again.
In Houston, before air conditioning, they had (permanent) watermelon stands where the watermelons were iced, and tables were there to eat them on, it was quite a break from the heat.
They were sort of a watermelon version of the Texas icehouse, or the Houston oyster bars.
One of my favorite cartoons was in the National Lampoon. It showed a black sharecropper standing in the watermelon patch next to his shanty. He’s holding a watermelon in his hands as the watermelon says to him, “Let my people go.”
I am going to second what Mark Twain said. I am a watermelon addict. I worked in a restaurant that paid minimum but gave us free reign to eat from the kitchen. In summer, I probably ate more in watermelon than I earned in wages.
All waitresses nicknamed me “The Watermelon Kid”. Other workers would be eating ice cream or making milk shakes. I would go straight for the watermelon until I was saturated with liquid.
Where did that Scottish Captain get the watermelon from?
Not sure. But, a big thank you to him. I haven’t seen anymore background on him on different stories I have read.
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