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Get a load of those melons!
After 50 years in obscurity, the Montreal melon has been resurrected. This week, bona fide Montreal melons were harvested on their native NDG soil. The variety vanished after WWII, when prime farmland gave way to city development. "You hear about that kind of problem all the time, but here we have a personal example of it happening right in our own backyard," says Martha Stiegman of Eco-Quartier NDG, which planted the variety in its community garden this June, after long-lost seeds were retrieved from a U.S. seed bank. The Montreal melon once sold for a dollar a slice in New York and was one of the biggest sellers in the Burpee seed catalogue of the 1880s. And for good reason: "It has pale green flesh, it's sweet and it has a bit of a spicy, nutmeggy taste," Stiegman says. In addition to its fine flavour, heirloom varieties like those from the NDG harvest are adapted to local conditions, so they don't require the same amount of chemicals and herbicides as mass-produced plants. Unfortunately, the melons were gobbled up at a harvest party on Wednesday. Melon-lovers will have to wait until next year for another taste. -- Sarah Musgrave |