Saturday, June 4, 2011

Lemon Drop Melon

I am sure there are plenty of things I could be doing right now around my house.  A few things that come to mind are dishes, laundry and various other cleaning opportunities that my kids provide me with daily.  Instead I decided that blogging about a yummy new fruit we tried was much more worthy.

Today while perusing the fresh fruit and veggie section at out local store I spotted a small section labeled Lemon Drop Melon (may be called  Lemon Melon not 100% sure which is the proper name as our store had it labeled Lemon Drop but when I google it I barely come up with any results for either combination).

We live in the sticks so I am always impressed with the large variety of fresh fruit and veggies our little country bumpkin store has available, and its usually locally (from local small farms) or in the least USA grown produce too.  For that reason the selection changes with the seasons and in the summer they get in some very exotic (to us) fruit and vegetables.  In the past we have purchased star fruit, pomelos, mangos, pomegranate, kiwi's as well as the staple fruits of the summer from them. 

It was their wide selection of fruits that inspired me to create my Food Bucket List.  Its a list of foods I want to try eating at least once before I, you know, kick the bucket.  It mainly contains a lot of exotic fruits and veggies but also has fun things on it like Deep Fried Snickers and Ostrich Burgers.

our Lemon Drop Melon before it was cut up
I also love to buy a wide variety of fruits to expose my kids to.   I think it's important for them to have an appreciation for all foods and to try new things as much as possible. My kids LOVE fruit (what kid doesn't right!) so its easiest to get them to try new flavors when they come from fruits.  Currently their favorites include peaches, strawberries, blueberries and raspberries.  So I purchased all of those along with the Lemon Drop Melon and made a little fruit salad to go along with our lunch when we got home.

I was not sure what to expect from the melon.  I imagined it would be somewhat tart or tangy from the name so I was not sure how much the kids would like it.  Therefore I only put about 1/4 of the melon into the fruit salad.  They. LOVED! It.  They were picking the melon out over all the rest of the fruit and asking for more melon before they even touched anything else.  I made them finish the rest of the fruit they had on their plates first and then cut up more melon.  We ended up eating the entire thing, minus a few slices I held back to try some Lemon Drop Melon Water (which is currently chilling in the fridge, I have yet to try it but hope it's as good as it sounds).

Lemon Drop Melon Water
The taste of the melon is hard to describe.  Its sweet with a tangy almost salty taste to it.  The closest I can come is that it really reminded me of my childhood.  Growing up my grandma would always sprinkle salt onto our honey dew or cantaloupe melon after she sliced it up (healthy I know!).  It sounds awful if you never tried it but it actually tastes good.  I no longer do this as an adult, I appreciate the tastes of the fruit themselves and don't want to add any more salt to our diets BUT that's really what this fruit tasted like.  It was sweet like a honey dew or cantaloupe but it had a tangy/salty taste to it as well.  In a totally good way.

The whole point of my nonsensical ramblings is.... in the wise words of Yo Gabba Gabba......

TRY IT, YOU'LL LIKE IT!

Try new foods, expand your horizons, buy that crazy looking/sounding fruit. You never know if you will like it if you never try it.

Ok, so now that I have wasterd 30 minutes of my afternoon writing this and a good 5 minutes of your afternoon as you read this I guess I will go and do something a little more productive.

Love,
this fun fruit lovin' mama,
Christy


P.S.  Check out my new blog called More Exotic Melons for a little more info on this melon and several other new (to me) melons I discovered.



UPDATE 08/01/11
Check out the comment that Sarah left, she works in the produce department at a grocery store and had some great info to share, thank you so much Sarah! 
Also, I just bought a Lemon Drop Melon a few days ago and used it for smoothies, I will be posting the recipe soon, it was YUM YUM YUM!  Be on the look out for that, I will link it here when it is up.

"Hi! My name is Sarah and I just stumbled across your blog here for the first time, and I'm hoping I can be of a little bit of help. I work for a grocery store in the produce section and it's my job to find out more information to pass on to customers and it just so happens that the Lemon Drop melon is what I'm looking at this week, and I'm happy to share the information that we found.
First off, the Galia Melon and the Lemon Drop Melon (a.k.a. Lemon Melon) are NOT the same melon.
The Lemon Melon came about only in the last few decades from a melon breeder in the Mediterranean region. He originally found a melon that was naturally high in citric acid, which is what gives the Lemon Melon it's lemony taste. Over the next decade or two after it's discovery, it was bred with many sweet-type melons using traditional breeding techniques (Non-GMO) to get the delicious melon that we have today.
As far as nutrition goes, the Lemon Drop Melon is fat free, low in calories (60 calories/cup) and high in Vitamins A and C.


To Sarah: I don't have twitter, I am not "cool" like that and find new technology intimidating.   I am on Facebook

Also, I got a notification a few days ago that someone left a comment on More Exotic Melons telling a trick on how to know if the Lemon Drop Melon is ripe.  I know many of you are wondering this, however when I go back and look the comment was gone.  I remember he said something about the green lines in the rind being dark in color but that's it.  So Sorry, I have never been good at how to tell if any melons are ripe.  I usually just grab 1, I have not been disappointed yet.


You can feel free to contact me on my personal twitter account, which is sarahwells61 if you have any more questions. Hope this helped! "

32 comments:

  1. I just bought a Lemondrop Melon today and came home to research it a little bit and your blog is the only thing I can find that has any info about these melons! I've tried to look up things about canteloupe's (since that's the fruit they most resemble) because I'm not totally sure how to tell when it's ripe! Your melon looks like mine so maybe it's ok to cut up! Haha.

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  2. I know Brittany, I was surprised at how hard it was to find any info on this fruit. When I googled "Lemon Melon" I found a few things which I have linked above. One of the same links showed up when I googled "Lemon Drop Melon" (which is what the store I purchased them at called them). That was one of the reasons why I wrote the blog, because I was so stunned to not find any real info out there about them. I kinda just judged it like I would a canteloupe or honey dew melon and it seemed to be ripe when we ate it :) It tasted yummy thats for sure.

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  3. I just found these at my local Sams Club and they are fantastic! Tried to find out more about these and your blog is the first thing that pops up on Google. Can't wait to go back to the Sams and pick up a couple more. They are a little small in size, but make up for it in flavor as it tastes incredible. Thanks for the info.

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  4. I know I was truly shocked at how little info there is out there. I was hoping to find out if its really some sort of hybrid fruit (like a cross between a lemon and soe sort of melon) or if they just call it that because they thought it tasted like a lemon. I never could find anything saying 1 or the other.
    They are amazingly good. Our local store only had 3 when I bought ours, when I went back the other 2 were gone and they have yet to get anymore in, I was bummed!

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  5. Christy,
    Thank you for writing this blog! I am the produce manager at a small town grocery store and we are ALWAYS looking for new and exciting things. And for the first time this morning I noticed a new item "lemondrop melon" So I immediately thought that sounded cool and ordered it. We should get it in tomorrow. So right now I have come to look up some information and can't find anything about them except from your blog! So glad you wrote it! Now I know what to expect and tell people. Thanks :)

    Amber

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  6. I just bought one today at my local grocery store (a chain store), and even THEY had no idea what it was. When I got it to the register, the cashier couldn't figure out how to ring it up because it wasn't in the system (even though it had a label on it with a barcode). He ended up ringing it up as a cantaloupe!! :) I'm excited to try it now after reading your post. Hoping it will be a big hit here, too!

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  7. lol Jules, that's exactly what happened when they went to ring mine up too! They couldn't get it to work and the manager said "just do cantaloupe" which ended up making it way cheaper as it was priced $3.99 and the cantaloupes were on sall for 99 cents each.

    I am so sad that my store has yet to get anymore in. I am really craving one now haha. I wrote this blog just to be silly because I was bored, it is now one of my highest viewed blogs ever. Who woulda thunk lol.

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  8. You need to come to Albuquerque, NM and eat at Kelley's, located on Historic Route 66!! They sell a darn good Ostrich burger!!

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  9. We tried it and did NOT like it! Maybe our fruit was over ripe, but it tasted like sour melon, and not in a good way! I am glad yours tasted better than ours did. :)

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  10. Hillary, I definitely need to come to Albuquerque haha. I live in the sticks so I doubt I will ever find a place near me that sells things like ostrich burgers.

    Anonymous- that sucks :( Ours definitely did not taste like a sour or bad melon. I have never been any good at telling if any melon is ripe and it's even harder with these since there is so little info out there about them :(

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  11. Hi, just ran across you blog researching Lemondrop Melons. We just tried some of the this melon (and lemondrop is what our local store called it) and it is great! My cashier had the same problem as well, the melon had no PLU sticker and they had to call produce to get the right number. To me, it tasted like a cross between a cantaloupe and a honeydew, but it definitely had a tang to it. Hopefully someone can find some more info on this melon.

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  12. We just purchased one of these yesterday from our local sams club. We have never seen or heard of it till yesterday. They are so good. Only problem is they only had 3 left and are not getting more in so now i can't find my new favorite fruit anywhere :( and there is no information out there on these at all. Hopefully some will pop up soon.

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  13. I bought one yesterday at the urging of my mother-in-law. I also live way out and drive 25+ miles to get to a sizable grocery store (upstate NYS). I love lime and she said it had a hint of lime flavor. I am hooked. It tastes almost exactly like a lemon lollipop - sweet, citrusy, and a smell between lemon and lime. Delicious. Called my Dad in Dallas (TX) and told him to go get one at the big stores there. Apparently, it is only up here! And only at Wegman's! Just one more great reason to shop at Wegman's. If you get the chance, grab one of these (lemondrop) - scrumptious!

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  14. I just got one of these melons at Sam's club. It is delicious. Like you, I'm trying to find info on it too.

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  15. Try looking up Galia melons. I think it's what they are calling the lemon drop melons. They look exactly like the lemon drops. Yummy they are delicious, I just found them this weekend at Sam's club store.

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  16. Pam, check out the second post called More Exotic Melons:
    http://reedfamilyjourney.blogspot.com/2011/06/more-exotic-melons.html
    My store also had Galia melons right alongside the Lemondrop. I may have to buy one just to see if they are the same :)

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  17. hey, a local grocery store here in the huson valley area of new york has them on sale for $2.99 ea. this week. the ad says they are grown exclusively by martori farms in arizona.
    i gave them a google but found nothing about the melon on their site. what i did find though were some articles about martori using prison labor on their farms and the poor working conditions they endured for $2.00 an hour.

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  18. Got a lemon drop melon at the Price Chopper in Lebanon, New Hampshire. They had a sample to try and I tasted it.The outside of the melon looks like a cantaloupe but the inside looks like honeydew. It tastes like sweet honeydew drizzled with lemon juice. Unfortunately, our melon rotted from the core outward and we were only able to salvage a small part. Fortunately, as produce goes, it wasn't too expensive--$2.99 --and the store replaced it. I, too, am trying to find out more info. This one had a sticker label--KANDY--Lemondrop Melon--sweet melon flavor with a lemon twist! Product of USA That was a selling point for sure--USA--so maybe ripe with flavor!

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  19. Just recently bought one and decided to slice and grill it -- love it raw but it is absolutely INCREDIBLE on the grill. I can't wait to buy some more and do some more grilling!

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  20. I got some from sams club $2.97 each/ I asked the produce guy how to tell if they were ripe. He says if the lines inbetween are deep green, they are not ripe or too ripe! also I learned to gently remove the seeds, below the seeds is the best "soft" meat of the melon. boy is this a great find. enjoy. someone please plant the seeds,,,,here is washington state not enough sun, but I will try....good luck.... also I made lemon drop cocktails and garnished them with this and it was a hit!

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  21. Hi! My name is Sarah and I just stumbled across your blog here for the first time, and I'm hoping I can be of a little bit of help. I work for a grocery store in the produce section and it's my job to find out more information to pass on to customers and it just so happens that the Lemon Drop melon is what I'm looking at this week, and I'm happy to share the information that we found.
    First off, the Galia Melon and the Lemon Drop Melon (a.k.a. Lemon Melon) are NOT the same melon.
    The Lemon Melon came about only in the last few decades from a melon breeder in the Mediterranean region. He originally found a melon that was naturally high in citric acid, which is what gives the Lemon Melon it's lemony taste. Over the next decade or two after it's discovery, it was bred with many sweet-type melons using traditional breeding techniques (Non-GMO) to get the delicious melon that we have today.
    As far as nutrition goes, the Lemon Drop Melon is fat free, low in calories (60 calories/cup) and high in Vitamins A and C.

    You can feel free to contact me on my personal twitter account, which is sarahwells61 if you have any more questions. Hope this helped!

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  22. I just bought one of these at Sam's today too. I will blog about it soon. I am eating it right now, and am IN LOVE. It tastes so good. Sat down to google it and your blog came up! :)

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  23. I served this in our fruit bowl, one of our customers thought it was rotten fruit!!!

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  24. Just bought one of these at Sam's today and am eating it now. YUM! I wondered if it was a GMO, and Sarah's info helped me there.

    Thanks for this post!

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  25. Just bought one yesterday at Sam's Club for $1.99. Sounds like for the most part we have quite a treat awaiting us!

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  26. where did it come from please tell me.baltimore

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  27. We just bought one yesterday. I was scared, but it smelled so good when I cut it open! I wasn't sure what to think at first but I love it. My family did too! I am sad that there is still not much information out there about this melon!

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  28. I ate my first Lemon Drop Melon yesterday and have been researching it today and came across your blog. My melon was ripe and sweet like a blend of honeydew and lemonade. I did not taste the saltiness you describe. maybe when not fully ripe?
    It is a favorite summer treat in Isreal and is blended into drinks and sherbet (Limonana is a mixture with lemon drop melon, lemon and mint).

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  29. I tried my first Lemon Drop melon tonight, and I love it! To me it tastes like honeydew melon tossed in a sweet, citrus-based glaze--delicious! As for ripeness, I could tell this melon was ripe the same way I can tell with a cantaloupe. First, you SMELL it. If it has no smell, it's not ripe. If it smells faintly like melon, it's barely ripe. IF it smells like sweet melon, it's very ripe! You can also gently press the rind--you don't want it to be rock hard, but to have a little give and softness to it without mushiness. Hope this helps! :)

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  30. Thank you for that update! I just tried my first lemon drop melon today, and I was highly impressed. I wanted to know how it was developed, and "Viola!" I'm so glad it's not the product of genetic modification!

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  31. To tell of a melon is ripe, smell the stem end. If it has a nice fragrance, chances are very high that the melon is ripe. Next, does the melon feel heavy for its size. Overripe melons are squishy on the stem end. Under ripe melons are hard. Love both lemon drop and galia, which are distinctly different.

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  32. Bought mine at the 99 cent store

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