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.
I don’t know if I saw it at FR or in an archaeology journal, but some 2,000 year old date seeds from the Israel area have been sprouted. Apparently this date was so delicious it was a major economic product of the Jewish areas, so the Roman’s systematically set about to destroy all traces of the plant. I so hope they will succeed in revitalizing the line.