This green and cream speckled, teardrop shaped melon was developed by Oliver Crane in the early 1900s by crossing several varieties of melons, including a Japanese melon, a white melon, a Persian melon and an ambrosia melon among others.
It has everything you'd want in a summer melon. It's exceptionally juicy, flavorful and aromatic. The bad news is that it may be hard to find.
It's tasty dressed up with a nice wrap of Prosciutto or ...
you can eat it plain. However you decide to eat it, I guarantee it will taste delicious.
While roaming through the Davis Farmers Market the other day I stopped by Pacific Star Gardens, a small, family owned and operated organic farm located in Woodland, CA. They had a nice display of melons and this one caught my eye. I asked about it and decided it was definitely something I wanted to try. Once I was home I sat down to do a little research and that’s when I found out that the Crane melon has a very interesting history, it has been marked for preservation under Slow Food’s The Ark project, and is featured in the book Melon\’s For The Passionate Grower. The Ark of Taste project aims to rediscover and catalog forgotten flavors, documenting rare breeds and excellent food products that are in danger of disappearing. In partnership with Slow Food USA, Local Harvest lists growers and producers of these items throughout the US. If you can’t find these wonderful melons at your Farmers’ Market you can buy seeds from Sustainable Seed Company and grow your own next year, which is what I plan to do. If you do find them, let me know what you think of Oliver Crane’s creation.
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