Posted on 12/23/2005 10:14:27 AM PST by CajunConservative
This one is puzzling thousands of people. St. Bernard Parish, virtually wiped out following Hurricane Katrina, is seeing the spontaneous growth of watermelons. They're everywhere! It's a post-Katrina phenomenon that has even the experts baffled.
"I've never seen anything like this before," said Dr. Ron Strahan of the LSU Ag Center as he surveyed the watermelon infestation.
The fruit, which is normally planted in April, has been sprouting up all over St. Bernard Parish ever since Katrina. Presumably, the seeds were deposited during the hurricane and unusually high temperatures have produced a natural mystery.
"It's just going to be one of those things we're probably not going to be able to explain," said Strahan.
According to Strahan, the clay in St. Bernard absorbed the sunlight, retaining the heat and allowing the melons to grow. A watermelon's consistency is 90 percent water, which means if you eat the St. Bernard Parish melons, you're drinking Katrina juice.
"I don't think I'd want to eat them," Strahan laughed. "I don't think so, but it's just something unusual to look at, maybe take some pictures of and remember this happened after Katrina 2005 and we'll probably never see again."
Katrina may have planted the melons, but bees had to pollinate them, which indicates that growth is possible in St. Bernard Parish following the storm. Even if it is Katrinan melons.
They are really pretty good. It doesn't take too many to get enough, but my grandmother made them, and a lot of other people back then. Folks didn't waste much in those days. I was a boy growing up in the late thirties and the forties. Somehow I got to be thirteen in 1950 and had those golden teens in the midsouth listening to Elvis and all the other country and R&B greats of that period. Of course, all the while I was eating watermelon.
Well, it was removed by moderator, so won't post it...
maybe it was not so funny, but I had just finished scanning the article and got to the comment in question and nearly fell over backwards - i did spill my cider!
My parents made them too when we were kids. Some here still do. It was good.
Given the makeup of the population of New Orleans, there is a joke here somewhere!
to wit: the removed comment
I love neat old guys like you. I grew up much later, but still have the same memories of eating good watermelon.
You're right and was was passed through my head reading the article -- though I didn't think about the mustard, hadn't heard that one... but, Mother Nature is amazing if people would just step back and look at it...
Down where I comes from, EVERY watermelon grown wit a load o' sh!t on'em. And dis fertilizer wuz free! Don't people know dat's what growed 'em thataway?
Mother Nature is amazing if people would just step back and look at it...
I sure got that when my brother took my other brother and I in a Cessna on a cross country trip. We were nothing against those clouds.
You're right. Sometimes the more crap you give something, the better it is. It makes things more manureable too.
Everybody like chicken fry chicken too.
Many of us "younger" people don't realize what we have nowadays. We had 8 kids and 2 parents in about a 2000 square foot house. A lot of people nowadays (here at least) move if every child does not have his/her own room. I NEVER had my own room. We need to really be thankful for what we have sometimes rather than complaining about what we don't.
You messed wit Lola, you get sometin Bab-o never washed off.
Everybody like chicken fry chicken too.
In Korea, there was a chain called Donkey Fried Chicken. Despite the name, it was pretty good.
btw, as a long time transplanted southerner, I've always thought the watermelon and fried chicken jokes were quite harmless. It's silly to go all PC on them, because as was pointed out, everybody loves fried chicken and watermelon. It's about as offensive as saying cops like donuts.
It's about as offensive as saying cops like donuts.
I always joke that if my community ever does become dangerous, I will always be able to go to convenience stores and fast food joints because the cops do a good job making sure they're safe here (actually it's quite true here:).
You too were fortunate. You had one more than we did, but a lot more room. In the forties and fifties I think the average house was about 800-900 sq ft. Of course, we didn't spend too much time indoors. It was plenty big outside, and the best part of our lives.
I've seen some of those old frontier homes. Many of them didn't have much room at all.
My momma said when she was a little girl her momma would send the kids out to pick the wild greens for dinner.
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