The Black Informant

(ars.usda.gov) Just in time for bathing suit season: a leaner, meaner watermelon that boasts all the refreshing flavor and good-for-you nutrients of many conventional varieties, but contains more than 50 percent less sugar.

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) plant geneticist Angela Davis in Lane, Okla., is the chief breeder of two new low-sugar melons that should be a welcome treat for dieters, diabetics and everyone else wishing to curb their sugar or carb intakes.

Davis, who works at the ARS South Central Agricultural Research Laboratory in Lane, is currently sharing the new watermelon stock with interested growers. And while their official debut will depend upon farmers’ receptiveness, the seeded watermelons could start showing up in produce aisles by summer’s end.

Davis embarked on the quest for a naturally low-sugar watermelon after realizing the popular fruit was off limits for many consumers, including the nation’s more than 20 million diabetics.

But don’t blame the melon for its current sugary taste. Over the decades, breeders have increasingly selected for sweeter and sweeter fruit. In fact, heirloom watermelons that might have rolled out of Granddad’s garden contained about 25 percent less sugar than their contemporary cousins. (more…)

You know, all of this is starting to make some sense to me now. I’ve lived in the southeast and I live here in the west and typically the melons back east taste much better—until this year. For some reason California watermelons seemed to taste much sweeter than in the past. Our rain level has been pretty low this year so this never made any sense to me. Perhaps there is some connection.

(I know I just scared off at least a handful of y’all talking about Watermelons in the “open” [gasp!]).