The Arte Combe’s Ancient Watermelon is a rare watermelon with a long neck and resembles a green gourd. It is believed that Native Americans selected this shape to make it easy to carry. The flesh is juicy and sweet and the fruits can get as big as 20 pounds. The seeds for this ancient fruit were found in the 1920s by Art Combe in a ancient vessel soared in a sandstone cave in Arizona Mogollon Rim. Art was a plant expert from the Southwest.
The seeds were red and estimated to be hundreds, if not thousands of years old. When Art planted them a few seeds germinated and the crookneck fruits were the result. After several decades of growing this variety, Art selected for the biggest and most uniform shape resulting in a huge watermelon and sweet flesh. As this variety is from the desert it is very drought tolerant, and Art used dry farming methods to produce the sweetest watermelon possible. This is one melon you don’t want to pass on.
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