A Visit to a Watermelon Farm

Have you ever wondered how those big, sweet, and juicy watermelons are grown? Well, my family and I have had that opportunity to witness it personally last Sunday, on a wide 300+ hectare space in Northern Luzon.

 

Our gracious host treated us for a nice lunch first, before we went to their nursery area. With the sun's noontime heat, the watermelon seedlings have to be continuously provided with water, without destroying the small clump of soil that holds the roots.

Then, we transferred to a grass-covered area that actually contains watermelons ready for harvesting. See Mt. Arayat in the background, which could have provided the nutrition-rich sandy soil from its previous eruptions, thousands of years ago.

This is the fun part as we inspect the fruits, and hold them for picture taking. Some watermelons weigh as heavy as 10 kg each!

If not for the noontime heat of the sun, we could have explored the other areas of the farm. Before we left, the farm owner generously gave us lots of their sweet, seedless watermelons. I loaded many watermelons in the car, perhaps the equivalent of 3-4 persons, which we brought as pasalubong to relatives and friends.