Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh
Speaker 1: and there's Chuck and this is Stuff you Should Know,
Speaker 1: featuring Jerry and Livia on watermelons. I don't know. I
Speaker 1: think I just literally came out with this idea because
Speaker 1: I was eating watermelon and I was like, you know what,
Speaker 1: watermelons delicious? But I know there's a history there, and
Speaker 1: I know there are square watermelons, and and like, uh,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you're like me, but like like
Speaker 1: nine eleven and like when Reagan was shot. I remember
Speaker 1: where I was the day that I saw my first
Speaker 1: square watermelon. Huh yeah. It was during house to work.
Speaker 1: I think it might have even been you. I showed
Speaker 1: you a square watermelon. I mean not in person, but
Speaker 1: they're expensive. You're like, hey, come here and look at
Speaker 1: this over my shoulder and I was like, la, la,
Speaker 1: what's going I opened up my trench coat and there
Speaker 1: was a square watermelon. But yeah, I think I just
Speaker 1: the square watermelon has uh enchanted me for years now,
Speaker 1: and I didn't even know that they were heart shaped
Speaker 1: watermelons until two days ago. That's so cute? Are you bombed.
Speaker 1: Now that you understand the how the watermelons get so square, well, no,
Speaker 1: because I knew how they got square. But whoever told
Speaker 1: me about this and how stuff works at our old
Speaker 1: job told me it was because in Japan they have
Speaker 1: small refrigerators and they make them to fit more easily
Speaker 1: in a Japanese refrigerator. But I don't think that that
Speaker 1: part is true, right, That I believe, based on what
Speaker 1: I've read, is a myth that we're gonna crumble. Yeah,
Speaker 1: should be going from square watermelons? Yeah? Sure? Why not? So?
Speaker 1: Um they were invented in Japan and as pretty much
Speaker 1: all perfect things were, And there was a guy named
Speaker 1: um Tomoyuki on No and he was an artist. He
Speaker 1: also happened to be a horticulturist and back in the
Speaker 1: seventies he figured out how to make square watermelons and
Speaker 1: created a patent on it. And they're so charming that
Speaker 1: within a year they were all they were ready for sale.
Speaker 1: They went from an art gallery like basically an art
Speaker 1: project too for sale in Tokyo within you know, less
Speaker 1: than one years. Uh. And they are grown in Japan
Speaker 1: and they are grown in containers. Uh. And it's sort
Speaker 1: of like a goldfish. They grow to fit their container,
Speaker 1: including the round ones and the pyramid shaped ones, which
Speaker 1: are really interesting looking, but they are not very good
Speaker 1: to eat, and they cost about a hundred bucks in Japan.
Speaker 1: And so I think that it is definitely a crumbled
Speaker 1: myth that they are grown justifitted into Japanese refrigerators. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because nobody eats them. You don't eat them, so myth crumbled.
Speaker 1: And as a Japanese refrigerator small, that is probably true. Yes,
Speaker 1: I mean most most appliances in Japan are smaller than
Speaker 1: the ones you find in America. I think America leads
Speaker 1: away in humongous appliances, right yeah, and humongous portions and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. Us everything we need humongous appliant. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, if you haven't ever seen a square watermelon
Speaker 1: or a heart shaped watermelon, especially at heart shaped watermelon
Speaker 1: is cut open, because that's the real money shot. Oh,
Speaker 1: I hadn't thought about that. It's it's really amazing looking
Speaker 1: in a little bit of a brain twister, do you know,
Speaker 1: I'm such a loser. I didn't bother to look up
Speaker 1: what a heart shaped watermelon looks like, like what a
Speaker 1: heart looks like, you know what waterlon looks like? Yeah,
Speaker 1: let's put together. And then you said cut open. I'm like,
Speaker 1: cut open, yes, you gotta see that. And the little
Speaker 1: the pyramid when it looks more like a hurchies kiss,
Speaker 1: like a giant arches kiss. Okay, I imagine like pretty
Speaker 1: much a perfect rounded edged pyramid. But she's kiss. I could,
Speaker 1: which is would be great for a fridge because part
Speaker 1: of the problem with a watermelon in the fridge is
Speaker 1: the shape. Those things roll around in there and they're
Speaker 1: huge that it is a big problem. But as we'll see,
Speaker 1: you shouldn't really be keeping in the fridge very much anyway. Um,
Speaker 1: but let's talk watermelons where they came from, because they
Speaker 1: It turns out watermelons are beloved around the world. I mean,
Speaker 1: people love watermelons around the world. From what I read, Chuck,
Speaker 1: there's only livestock have more agricultural land dedicated to raising
Speaker 1: them than watermelons. They take up so much space, but
Speaker 1: people love them so much that they just go ahead
Speaker 1: and give the watermelons the space. And apparently by weight,
Speaker 1: it's the third most eaten fruit in the world, really
Speaker 1: the second because the tomato. Come on, I mean it's like,
Speaker 1: but like, if you think fruit, I'm just gonna go
Speaker 1: ahead and say the order is banana than watermelon. As
Speaker 1: far as most eaten, I agree. I think calling a
Speaker 1: tomato fruit is like saying cooded grass at a party.
Speaker 1: You're saying a brownie's a cookie? Right? Yeah? What kind
Speaker 1: of a jerk would say something stupid like that, especially
Speaker 1: insist on it in in a pedantic army That wasn't
Speaker 1: even you. You were just you were seeing stuff online, right,
Speaker 1: you didn't invent that? Yeah, I was misled by internet rumors. Uh.
Speaker 1: The watermelon, though, is a berry technically, which means it
Speaker 1: has the outer part is hard, it's got a fleshy
Speaker 1: metal and then the inner part is softer and has
Speaker 1: the seeds. Uh. We'll get to the ced part later,
Speaker 1: of course, because we don't really have seeds in our
Speaker 1: watermelons anymore. And then, if you want to talk more specific,
Speaker 1: it's called a peppo p e p o, which means
Speaker 1: as a thick rind, like a squash or a pumpkin.
Speaker 1: You're going with peppo. I'm I don't care what it's
Speaker 1: called peepo for me, peepo peepo watermelons peepo, dude, I
Speaker 1: love it. Yeah, peepo. Okay, and it's a berry too.
Speaker 1: I mean, watermelons just got twice as good to me. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I dare you to go to the uh grocery store
Speaker 1: next time and say, hey, where do you keep the
Speaker 1: people berries? The square ones? You've got these square people berries. Security. So,
Speaker 1: watermelons are also related to squash and pumpkin, but they're
Speaker 1: most closely related to cucumbers because they're part of the q.
Speaker 1: Curbitacea family. Um, and other melons are too, but I
Speaker 1: believe cucumbers and watermelons are pretty close together, um, even
Speaker 1: though you wouldn't necessarily know it to look at them.
Speaker 1: But specifically, watermelon species are Citrellis leonatus, and all of
Speaker 1: the different kinds of watermelons that we have from what
Speaker 1: I understand, our varieties of that species. That's right. Uh.
Speaker 1: And we've known for a long time that watermelons came
Speaker 1: from Africa. Thank you Africa for this gift to the world.
Speaker 1: But it was more recently where they kind of zeero
Speaker 1: it in on exactly where Uh. There are a lot
Speaker 1: of melons in Africa that you could call a watermelon. Um,
Speaker 1: they are different kinds of citrilis uh citrilus citrilush either
Speaker 1: one okay species uh, but these are a little more pale.
Speaker 1: They're not like that deep sweet red and which means
Speaker 1: they're not going to be a sweet either let in taste.
Speaker 1: So they're they're more bitter or more bland. Uh. And
Speaker 1: they can be used over there. They still use these things.
Speaker 1: They'll mash up the seeds and using them to thicken
Speaker 1: a soup, or maybe they'll just eat the seeds, roast
Speaker 1: them up and eat them, or maybe they'll use them
Speaker 1: for water, just like clean water, because a watermelon is
Speaker 1: mostly water. Yeah, I think um oh, I can't remember
Speaker 1: the main character and the gods must be Crazy's name,
Speaker 1: but he cuts open like uh something that I assume
Speaker 1: is of a species of watermelon and drinks the water
Speaker 1: out of it. Um. So yeah, there's a bunch of
Speaker 1: different kinds of species of watermelons, but none of them
Speaker 1: are like the ones that we um commercially grow and produce,
Speaker 1: which are typically referred to as dessert watermelons to differentiate
Speaker 1: that they're sweet and tasty and not like it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I ran across it, and that's I think. It's a
Speaker 1: great little almost like cellar door dessert watermelon. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: you usually do hand it out after a meal. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's a It's a great American tradition. It's delicious. I
Speaker 1: have wonderful memories being a kid eating watermelon with my
Speaker 1: granddad and spitting those seeds out back when they used
Speaker 1: to have seeds where I would put them in between
Speaker 1: my fingers because they're slippery, and I would shoot them. Uh.
Speaker 1: Just great memories of watermelon. And I still love it.
Speaker 1: And my daughter just can eat ungodly amounts of watermelon.
Speaker 1: Is that right? Oh? Yeah, she loves it. That's cute.
Speaker 1: It's delicious, it's sweet, it's watery. Who didn't like it?
Speaker 1: Apparently there's somebody who ranked watermelon and said it's gross
Speaker 1: it it says that. Okay, The name of the fruit
Speaker 1: literally tells you that eating it is going to be
Speaker 1: the most boring experience of your life. It has the
Speaker 1: same bland, mediocre taste of all the melons, except the
Speaker 1: pleasantly chewy melon flashes are replaced by barely fruity flavored
Speaker 1: wet sand What a fun, fun person to be around.
Speaker 1: Please corner me at the next party I'm at. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they probably say cooded grass. Give me all your opinions.
Speaker 1: So you said that eating watermelon is a is a
Speaker 1: great American tradition. Indeed, but Americans are relative newcomers compared
Speaker 1: to other countries that have long standing traditions of enjoying
Speaker 1: watermelon too, because like you said, they've kind of figured
Speaker 1: out that somewhere in Northeast Africa, perhaps Egypt, perhaps the
Speaker 1: area that's now sudan Um where the Nubians used to
Speaker 1: run the show. They probably speaking on from recent genetic tests, um,
Speaker 1: are the ones who domesticated the watermelon over many, many hundreds,
Speaker 1: if not thousands of years of just selecting for sweeter
Speaker 1: and sweeter seeds. And then it spread, starting probably with Egypt,
Speaker 1: because Egypt treated with everybody in the Mediterranean, uh, pretty
Speaker 1: much everywhere. Um. It reached across the Mediterranean by uh
Speaker 1: maybe twenty four to twenty years ago. It hit India strangely,
Speaker 1: um the ninth century CE, so not that long ago.
Speaker 1: China by the tenth century. So it's it's weird that
Speaker 1: it took that long, but it definitely spread. One of
Speaker 1: the reasons why it did spread is because it's fairly
Speaker 1: easy to grow, and it grows just about anywhere. It's
Speaker 1: adapted from plants that can survive in semi arid conditions,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, and this you know, we have the
Speaker 1: Spanish to think for bringing it to the America's and
Speaker 1: you know, they introduced them to the Native Americans and
Speaker 1: they were like, hey, a this is this grows like
Speaker 1: one of the three sisters are beloved squash. Uh and
Speaker 1: so we think we could grow this stuff. And the
Speaker 1: Native Americans grew it in abundance, traded it in abundance,
Speaker 1: such that by the end of the seventeenth century there
Speaker 1: was watermelon all over what we now call the United States.
Speaker 1: And when the Europeans arrived, they were like they thought
Speaker 1: it was native to hear because they were growing so
Speaker 1: much of it. Yeah, I guess as late as the
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties they were like still debating whether it was
Speaker 1: of European origin or if if the North Americans had
Speaker 1: it first, but they've definitively traced it back to Africa.
Speaker 1: What still um under debate, Chuck, is whether it was
Speaker 1: the Spanish that introduced it or oh yeah, or whether
Speaker 1: it was some of the first um enslaved people from
Speaker 1: West Africa that brought it over with them, UM that
Speaker 1: I think is still up for debate. Oh interesting, Okay, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: they'll get to the bottom of it someday. Uh. Livia
Speaker 1: does point out though, that there are different words for
Speaker 1: watermelon that are completely unrelated in Arabic and Hebrew and
Speaker 1: Sanskrit and Greek and Spanish, and that's a good indication
Speaker 1: that it is if the words aren't like one another,
Speaker 1: that they have all had watermelon for a long long time, right,
Speaker 1: So watermelons all over the world. It's been a long
Speaker 1: standing part of UM, the United States history pretty since
Speaker 1: before the United States was even a thing. UM. And
Speaker 1: Thomas Jefferson apparently famously grew watermelons at Monticello and so
Speaker 1: that there was nothing better than a Virginia watermelon, and
Speaker 1: he was kind of onto something because apparently I don't
Speaker 1: know if it was after Jefferson or not, but yeah,
Speaker 1: it would have been after Jefferson. Because as the railroads
Speaker 1: came along, UM, and it was getting easier and easier
Speaker 1: to ship things like watermelons long distance. UM, they they
Speaker 1: developed a kind of watermelon that wasn't quite as good
Speaker 1: but traveled a lot better, and they would keep the
Speaker 1: good stuff of themselves in the South, where the watermelon
Speaker 1: naturally grows and flourishes best, and they would send these
Speaker 1: other ones that didn't taste quite as good up north
Speaker 1: because they figured they didn't know any different. That's right,
Speaker 1: And um, you know, for there was a time in
Speaker 1: America after the Civil War when former enslaved people actually
Speaker 1: could support themselves and sustain themselves outside the plantations by
Speaker 1: growing and selling watermelons and being farmers. But of course
Speaker 1: that got ruined because uh, starting at about the Civil War,
Speaker 1: white people turned it into a racist trope of black
Speaker 1: people eating watermelons, and it has been in everything from
Speaker 1: Birth of a Nation to uh to yard art kind
Speaker 1: of supporting this racist trope over the years. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: what really sucks about is that like it had its
Speaker 1: intended effect and that there are Black Americans who report
Speaker 1: still being uncomfortable eating watermelon around other white Americans, which
Speaker 1: is it's just so maddening that that's still a thing,
Speaker 1: and I mean it is and it's going to be
Speaker 1: a thing until people just say like this is this
Speaker 1: ridiculous And hopefully learning about the watermelon from us will
Speaker 1: help some people say this is ridiculous and stupid, and
Speaker 1: it's always been because one other thing about it, to
Speaker 1: Chuck is that at the time, those same racist Southerners
Speaker 1: and white people across the country who are associating watermelon,
Speaker 1: enjoying watermelon with with black people, we're enjoying it themselves.
Speaker 1: They liked it just as much. It was just because
Speaker 1: they could grow and sell watermelons and it represented freedom,
Speaker 1: black independence, and that threatened them that they used watermelons
Speaker 1: as a trope and just very juvenile e started equating
Speaker 1: it with all sorts of just dumb stuff. It's just
Speaker 1: so suck the stuff, Chuck. All right, well, let's take
Speaker 1: a break and uh, I'm gonna give you a little
Speaker 1: shoulder rub through the computer. Thank you. Thanks to be fantastic.
Speaker 1: It'll settle you down. And we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: the great Charleston Gray right after this. Okay, I mentioned
Speaker 1: Charleston Gray. If you're like, who's Charleston Gray? And why
Speaker 1: do I care? It's a great hotel check in name. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that is pretty good. That's the kind that they comp
Speaker 1: up free breakfast to. You know what I'm saying that
Speaker 1: that's that kind of name. Well, Mr Gray, doctor Gray,
Speaker 1: do you ever put any weird prefix when you're checking
Speaker 1: into stuff and signing up for stuff. Sometimes esquire, all right,
Speaker 1: I'll do esquire doctor. Usually it's always fun. I don't know, reverend. Occasionally,
Speaker 1: even though technically I am or reverend now, ID not
Speaker 1: want to be cornered on that one, so never shied away.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you can be like I've got the bona fides. Uh.
Speaker 1: So Charleston Gray was uh is the name of not
Speaker 1: a human being, but it's the name of a watermelon.
Speaker 1: The humans name was Charleston and Charles Andres of the U.
Speaker 1: S d A's Agricultural Research Service, the A R s
Speaker 1: UH and the vegetable Breeding Laboratory there, and he created
Speaker 1: the Charleston Gray watermelon in ninety four. And why do
Speaker 1: you care? It's because of the watermelons grown all over
Speaker 1: the world now have a lineage tied to the Charleston Gray. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And so remember we said that like all of the
Speaker 1: watermelons that you would ever come across or eat that
Speaker 1: you buy at a store, that's all just one species
Speaker 1: of watermelon. They're just different varieties of those are related
Speaker 1: to the same variety. And that means that they came
Speaker 1: upon one that tastes really good, ships really well. That
Speaker 1: was a big one. It's also resistant to some diseases
Speaker 1: and pests, but it also makes it extremely vulnerable. If
Speaker 1: there's ever a pest or a disease that can attack
Speaker 1: the Charleston Gray, it's going to wipe out all the
Speaker 1: watermelons because they're all very genetically similar. That's right, and
Speaker 1: that's why the a RS not the Atlanta Rhythm section.
Speaker 1: We're gonna have us a Champagne ing, all right, here
Speaker 1: we go. A RS is still looking into how to
Speaker 1: make watermelons more hardy, and they're looking at why wild
Speaker 1: watermelon species in Africa. They're looking at all kinds of
Speaker 1: varieties around the world and looking how to breathe them
Speaker 1: with less pesticides and that though, so the big watermelon
Speaker 1: apocalypse never happens. So yeah, one thing they're doing with
Speaker 1: the reason that they're really looking at is there's something called,
Speaker 1: I think methyl bromide, which was like a fog pesticide
Speaker 1: and maybe fungicide, killed a bunch of stuff that that
Speaker 1: um Charleston Grays are vulnerable too. But it also burns
Speaker 1: a hole in the ozone layer. So it got banned
Speaker 1: in Europe ten years ago, and it was recently banned
Speaker 1: here in the United States, and so they're really trying
Speaker 1: to figure this out. So they look to Europe and said, hey, Europe,
Speaker 1: what do you do when you couldn't use methyl bromide?
Speaker 1: In Europe said, we started using different roots stock. So
Speaker 1: they'll take the rudy part of the plant from squash plants.
Speaker 1: Apparently you are really useful for this, and they graft
Speaker 1: a um watermelon plant onto the top of it. The
Speaker 1: top part of the watermelon plant stems and seeds and
Speaker 1: all that, and it grows together to create the superplant
Speaker 1: that has It produces great watermelons, but it's also resistant
Speaker 1: to these diseases and pests, which goes back to the
Speaker 1: Native Americans being great at growing watermelons because squash is
Speaker 1: one of the three sisters exactly. It's really cool. I
Speaker 1: love that stuff. Maybe we should do a short stuff
Speaker 1: on the three sisters would be cool. You know they
Speaker 1: factored heavily into pops Up a bunch in that of course. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: so we mentioned seedlessness because if you have eaten a
Speaker 1: watermelon in the past oh thirty something years, it's probably
Speaker 1: doesn't have seeds like they did when you were a kid.
Speaker 1: If you're an old timer like us, at least not
Speaker 1: those big mature black seeds that were great for spitting
Speaker 1: and uh and flicking. They have those little undeveloped white
Speaker 1: seeds a little bit. But the seedless watermelon was another
Speaker 1: invention by another Japanese geneticist. I think the other one
Speaker 1: was an artist in horticulturalist, but this is geneticist Hitoshi Kihara,
Speaker 1: and in ninety nine invented this seedless watermelon that started
Speaker 1: being available in the nineteen fifties. And what's remarkable about
Speaker 1: this is is that it's basically a manual operation that's
Speaker 1: required to make seedless watermelons. Yeah, you use some something
Speaker 1: called culture is seen, which takes a regular diploid watermelon
Speaker 1: with two pairs of chromosomes two copies of the chromosome
Speaker 1: um and turns it into a tetraploid, so that there's
Speaker 1: four copies of each chromosome. And you take the diploid
Speaker 1: and the tetraploid and you pollinate them, you cross fertilize them,
Speaker 1: and what you produce is called a I think a
Speaker 1: triploid and a triploid plant because it doesn't have an
Speaker 1: even number of copies of chromosomes. It's sterile, so it
Speaker 1: doesn't produce seeds. So that's how you get your seedless watermelon.
Speaker 1: And it's a real b word to raise seedless watermelons
Speaker 1: because part of your crop has to be diploid, regular
Speaker 1: seeded watermelons to use to fertilize them. But um, and
Speaker 1: at first, I guess farmers are kind of like, I'm
Speaker 1: not doing all that. Who wants a seedless watermelon anyway?
Speaker 1: And there was a guy named Oreste great name is like,
Speaker 1: people are gonna love this, and this guy just worked
Speaker 1: away at it, worked away at it, and kept for
Speaker 1: affecting the seedless watermelon. Um. But it wasn't until the
Speaker 1: late eighties that um, he finally managed to get it
Speaker 1: to take off. He partnered with a company called sun
Speaker 1: World International. Right, yeah, his first company was American Seedless
Speaker 1: Watermelon Corp. And uh, it took partnering with the giant,
Speaker 1: like a giant in the industry, a big agribusiness company
Speaker 1: to to really have it take off. And it did. Um.
Speaker 1: But you know, like I said, it's amazing. I think
Speaker 1: a lot of people, uh, I think it's a commodification
Speaker 1: and that is not true. It's actually a manual process that,
Speaker 1: like you said, is a real pain in the butt
Speaker 1: to farmers, and they had to get on board with
Speaker 1: this because the way they have to grow them and
Speaker 1: keep them separated, and uh, it's really a lot of work.
Speaker 1: But they were Uh, I guess or he was right
Speaker 1: on the money because people do love the seedless water.
Speaker 1: I kind of missed the seeds, but I have to
Speaker 1: admit the seedless or are easier to work with. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think nine center are seedless. And if you walk
Speaker 1: into a grocery store today, Chuck, and you asked for
Speaker 1: a watermelon with seeds, you're gonna be hard pressed to
Speaker 1: find one because they're just seedless, are so prevalent, And
Speaker 1: it's so crazy to me, Like, I I realized that
Speaker 1: my niece Mila, who stars as j in the twentieth
Speaker 1: century Fox movie No Exit, has was born into a
Speaker 1: world where there's never really been a seeded watermelon. She's
Speaker 1: never seen a seeded watermelon in her life. Yeah, Like
Speaker 1: she wouldn't walk into a grocery store and say can
Speaker 1: I have a square seated pepa berry? You know, and
Speaker 1: they would say, hey, wait a minute, aren't you The
Speaker 1: star of the Hulu hit motion picture Its stars such
Speaker 1: a relative term, isn't it. Where did they shoot? That
Speaker 1: was Atlanta, New Zealand. Oh geez, m man, So she's
Speaker 1: really get to live the life, huh. They shot it
Speaker 1: in New Zealand at the height of the pandemic, when
Speaker 1: New Zealand had like zero cases. That's where you want
Speaker 1: to be. Yeah, it was pretty neat, but they had
Speaker 1: to like quarantine and everything for fourteen days on either side,
Speaker 1: and it was really something. But yeah, they she know
Speaker 1: she went. It was a real real shoot, all right.
Speaker 1: So eating watermelons, you think, like it's such an American thing.
Speaker 1: We surely lead the world in watermelon consumption, and we
Speaker 1: eat a lot. We eat about fifteen pounds per person
Speaker 1: per year here in America, to the tune of about
Speaker 1: five billion pounds of watermelon a year. But Jack, that
Speaker 1: ain't nothing compared to China. In Chinese residents ate more
Speaker 1: than a hundred and fifty billion pounds of watermelon. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's fifty ms per capita. So we in the US
Speaker 1: fifteen pounds per person a year. They eat a hundred
Speaker 1: and ten pounds of watermelon per person per year. I
Speaker 1: had no idea it was so big in China. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's and again it's been there for over
Speaker 1: a thousand years, so they've they've had a long time
Speaker 1: to really come to appreciate the watermelon and Buddy do
Speaker 1: day ever, Well, we grow about two thirds of our
Speaker 1: own watermelon here in the US. The rest generally comes
Speaker 1: from Mexico. You probably are eating Florida watermelon. Maybe Georgia
Speaker 1: is number two, followed by Texas and California. But Florida
Speaker 1: is great for growing those watermelons because of the weather,
Speaker 1: because watermelons don't do well in the cold, so you
Speaker 1: can kind of grow them year round in Florida. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's really nothing better than Florida weather this time of
Speaker 1: year in particular. So um, one of the things about
Speaker 1: the watermelons is that they're growing season takes a little while,
Speaker 1: I think a hundred days, right, Yeah, so you're not
Speaker 1: going to grow them up north, probably unless you start
Speaker 1: them indoors. Yeah, I mean, you can't grow them anywhere.
Speaker 1: Like one of the things they spread so far and
Speaker 1: wide among Native Americans that the Hurons of the Great
Speaker 1: Lakes and Canada were growing them. So you can't grow
Speaker 1: them anywhere. It's just you can grow them all year
Speaker 1: round in Florida, you can grow them for a very
Speaker 1: limited window around the Great Lakes. But again, they'll grow
Speaker 1: just about anywhere. But one of the things about them, too, Chuck,
Speaker 1: is that they need a lot of space. Um. I
Speaker 1: saw in a University of Florida UM website which I
Speaker 1: apologize for using that, but I did. It's become so
Speaker 1: much more normalized to me since moving to Florida, Like
Speaker 1: dealing and seeing like University of Florida stuff doesn't trigger
Speaker 1: me at all anymore. Yeah, not at all. Well, Georgia's
Speaker 1: national champions in Florida, so who cares? So um. They
Speaker 1: watermelon needs eighteen to twenty four square feet per plant
Speaker 1: to grow. That's like a lot of space. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: thought about growing watermelons here. It's um Again, like squash,
Speaker 1: they tend to really take over. So just I mean,
Speaker 1: grow your watermelon, but make sure you got the room
Speaker 1: and you don't mind being annoyed by how much they spread. Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: which really, I mean, are you gonna be annoyed by
Speaker 1: some great watermelons growing in? Of course not. Um. They
Speaker 1: also can rot, so you want to grow them on
Speaker 1: something that's going to keep them from rotting because they
Speaker 1: gotta they're gonna connect with the ground there. You can
Speaker 1: grow them on a treillis. If your treillis is basically
Speaker 1: a steel crane. That's kind of what it takes um
Speaker 1: and I saw that that it's it's tough to figure
Speaker 1: out when they're ripe. Some varieties will have the stripe darken,
Speaker 1: you know, the contrasting greens. But I also saw in
Speaker 1: a few different places, if you pick up a watermelon
Speaker 1: there's a bald spot on the bottom where it rested
Speaker 1: on the ground. If that bald spot is white or
Speaker 1: pale green, it's not ripe. If it's cream or yellow e,
Speaker 1: it's ripe. That's the best way to tell a watermelon
Speaker 1: is ripe. My mom would always thump them in the store.
Speaker 1: I've read that doesn't actually tell you anything, and that
Speaker 1: it might actually tell you that they're overripe, because that
Speaker 1: just sort of a thing that you do that you
Speaker 1: see other people do. Have you ever smelled a cantaloupe. No,
Speaker 1: that's an amazing smell, and that's a good way to
Speaker 1: tell whether candle upe is right. It should be rather pungent,
Speaker 1: but from the from the outside that rhyme yes. That's
Speaker 1: how you tell that's that's a really good way to tell.
Speaker 1: It's right. Give a give a candle up a good smell,
Speaker 1: and you'll smell it right through that. My deal is,
Speaker 1: I don't like other melons that much. I love watermelon,
Speaker 1: but candle up has always been a little too bitter
Speaker 1: for me. And uh, what's the green one? Une melon?
Speaker 1: It's okay, I'm a watermelon guy, though I am not
Speaker 1: a melon guy of any kind really, oh not even watermelon. Huh. No,
Speaker 1: I've got no problems with any of it. I'm not
Speaker 1: like you gross, but I also like don't really crave it,
Speaker 1: and like you know that fruit salad that you'll get
Speaker 1: with different kinds of melon and breakfast, and not like
Speaker 1: I don't live for that or anything. What's your ideal fruit? Melange?
Speaker 1: Describe it? Fruit milan? Just probably pretty pedestrian. It's fruit.
Speaker 1: Would I maybe strawberries and blueberries together, just eating them
Speaker 1: by the handful? Okay, so you don't do it like
Speaker 1: a fruit mix? No, all right, what's yours? Well? I
Speaker 1: mean that we will have big weekends at the lake
Speaker 1: with lots of families and stuff, and that's always a
Speaker 1: really good thing to put out for breakfast. If you
Speaker 1: don't want to cook a big breakfast, put out at
Speaker 1: a bunch of pastries and things like that and like, uh,
Speaker 1: and then mixed together a big fruit melange. So I mean,
Speaker 1: I'll throw everything in their strawberries, blueberries, cut up pineapple, grapes. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, any kind of melon is always good to add.
Speaker 1: Raspberries don't hold up that well. You know, they're pretty soft.
Speaker 1: So I try to put in things. A chop up
Speaker 1: a banana, put that in there. I think all that,
Speaker 1: all that stuff is really good mixed together. I don't know,
Speaker 1: mixing a banana in there could get mushy real quick. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they can get a little mushy. And when a banana
Speaker 1: becomes discolored by other fruit juices, it's not as appealing looking.
Speaker 1: It's not as appealing. I generally thought that was funny.
Speaker 1: I've got one for you, Chuck. Have you ever had
Speaker 1: a wal door salad? Uh? Sure, mayo and grapes and
Speaker 1: apples and walnuts maybe. Yeah, apple is good to put
Speaker 1: in there, too, Okay. Yeah, I mean I'm fine with
Speaker 1: all those and I would basically eat them all individually.
Speaker 1: Be like cheap bastard can get us some real breakfast
Speaker 1: and just be be mad for the rest of the morning.
Speaker 1: Could you find me up some bacon or make some
Speaker 1: biscuitoon scratch? Would you kill you to make some cinnamon? Rules?
Speaker 1: I do that too, Um, all right, should we take
Speaker 1: another break? All right, we'll take another break, and we'll
Speaker 1: finish up with whether or not watermelons are even good
Speaker 1: for you? After all? Right after this m okay, chuck,
Speaker 1: chemistry and nutrition time? Are they good for you? Uh? Sure,
Speaker 1: I don't think they're particularly bad for you. Um. Olivia
Speaker 1: says that a cup of watermelons has forty six calories,
Speaker 1: most of them coming from sugar. UM. A lot of water.
Speaker 1: But unfortunately they also seem to have diuretic properties, which
Speaker 1: means that it would cause you to expel more water
Speaker 1: than you took in from it. Um. That does have
Speaker 1: a little vitamin A, vitamin B, six, vitamin C, some
Speaker 1: amino acids. I don't I don't think it's bad for you.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's a health food necessarily, although
Speaker 1: unless you cook it and you unleash the power of lycopene. Right. Yes.
Speaker 1: Lycopene is that pigment that makes tomatoes red. Uh. Sort
Speaker 1: of related to beata carotene with the orange of the carrots.
Speaker 1: But watermelon it actually has more like a peine than
Speaker 1: tomatoes do. And some people say, hey, a lot of
Speaker 1: antioxidants in there, so that's got to be good for you.
Speaker 1: But like you said, you have to cook the watermelon,
Speaker 1: which you can do. You can grill watermelon. Uh, it does,
Speaker 1: It does very well on the grill. Actually you've done
Speaker 1: that before. I've never done that. I mean, I like
Speaker 1: at raw, but you can grill it up. So it
Speaker 1: says that it causes the meat of the watermelon, um
Speaker 1: to be chewy? Does that you haven't experienced super chewy?
Speaker 1: But I may not have left it on as long
Speaker 1: as you need to to reach that point because I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't like chewy things generally. So um, what about watermelon?
Speaker 1: Rhyme pickles? I've always been interested in eating this, and
Speaker 1: I don't think I've been in too many places where
Speaker 1: they were there. And I guess when I was I
Speaker 1: was in in the mood for him. So have you
Speaker 1: ever had pickled watermelon right now? Because you know I'm
Speaker 1: not into pickled things generally. Oh that's right, that's right. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm going to try umph for the both of us. Okay,
Speaker 1: I did used to salt my watermelon a little bit
Speaker 1: when I was a kid. Uh, don't do that anymore,
Speaker 1: not for any real reason other than I just like
Speaker 1: the taste is is. But some people put a little
Speaker 1: little chipotli pepper, a little hot spice on there. Sometimes
Speaker 1: you can juice them. Uh, you can make them in
Speaker 1: alcoholic beverages, drop a little watermelon ball in there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can also, um, so if you like. It's kind
Speaker 1: of a kin to salting them, but it goes really
Speaker 1: well with um, salty and non sweet tastes like um,
Speaker 1: you mean, I had a watermelon salad years back at
Speaker 1: a place called Harry's Pizza in Miami. They had chunks.
Speaker 1: It's very simple, but it was just an explosion of flavor.
Speaker 1: You had chunks of watermelon. Okay, Um, snipped up mint,
Speaker 1: a little snipped up fresh tyme mint is good with watermelon. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's amazing. Stretchy tella, which is like a very much
Speaker 1: waterior mozzarella, like a looser mozzarella. Um, and then some
Speaker 1: chopped up kind of just pecans, and all of this
Speaker 1: in like minor amounts. You're not like making the Campbell's
Speaker 1: chunky super version of this. It's all like just kind
Speaker 1: of sparse because it doesn't take much a little bit
Speaker 1: of olive oil. Maybe you throw a couple of grains
Speaker 1: of salt on there, but you probably are getting enough
Speaker 1: from the stretch tella to do um and it is.
Speaker 1: Everything just works really really well together and it's really
Speaker 1: easy to make. Like you can get all of those
Speaker 1: ingredients at any grocery store anywhere and it's there. It's
Speaker 1: an amazing little treat. I strongly recommend that. That sounds delicious. Yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe you'd have trouble finding the stretch of tella. It
Speaker 1: just used like a buffalo mozzarella, just some mozzarella that
Speaker 1: comes in like a water of some sort to use that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and don't say mozzael no cooded gross the whole thing
Speaker 1: with watermelon. And like you'll see it at you know,
Speaker 1: a party sometimes someone will bore a hole in a
Speaker 1: watermelon and turn up a full bottle of vodka and
Speaker 1: stick it in there. Yeah, good idea. That's a thing.
Speaker 1: I've never tried it, but there. Olivia points out, there's
Speaker 1: a food writer for the Washington Post that said that's
Speaker 1: a myth. There's so much liquid in there. Their vodka
Speaker 1: has nowhere to go. Just pulls it like it does.
Speaker 1: So where does the vodka go though, It goes somewhere, right,
Speaker 1: it's not like a the ideas. It doesn't infuse all
Speaker 1: of the watermelon. I think it will come dribbling out
Speaker 1: after a while because the watermelon is it's ninety two
Speaker 1: or ninety six percent water, right, Yeah, so yeah, some
Speaker 1: of it will get sucked in before. It's not going
Speaker 1: to do what you're what you wanted to do. I've
Speaker 1: never tried it either, but but haven't either. So apparently
Speaker 1: the same food writer says you should scoop the watermelon
Speaker 1: out and then marinate it and and I guess being
Speaker 1: exposed to air, it will dry out some and suck
Speaker 1: in whatever alcoholic marinager you're marinating it in. Okay, well
Speaker 1: that makes sense, but that also brings up the idea
Speaker 1: of watermelon flavored things like watermelon jolly ranchers or chewing gum. Uh.
Speaker 1: It's I think it's got a better track record than banana.
Speaker 1: I've come to appreciate banana my older age. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: it never tastes like banana. It tastes like whatever they do. Yes, yes, totally.
Speaker 1: But watermelon kind of has that same wrap, which is like,
Speaker 1: there's nothing that truly tastes like watermelon, no kind of candy. Uh.
Speaker 1: And apparently there's a reason for that. Uh. It is
Speaker 1: because that flavor is probably a product of an organic
Speaker 1: compound uh called an aldehyde. Uh specifically, I don't even
Speaker 1: know how you would read this z mma Z DASH
Speaker 1: three six known a dienal aldehyde. Sure, okay, you enjoyed that,
Speaker 1: didn't you. Yeah, but the flavor of that specific organic
Speaker 1: compound is green cucumber melanie, fatty and rindy with a
Speaker 1: hint of meat fat. But apparently that breaks down so
Speaker 1: fast that they can't in the lab. They can't convert
Speaker 1: that flavor into uh something they can replicate very easily
Speaker 1: because they break down so quickly. Right, So I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: I just give him a break. Basically is the upshot
Speaker 1: of all that they're trying. Now that I now that
Speaker 1: you say that about banana flavor, I wonder how much
Speaker 1: of banana flavor seeming like, oh it's banana flavor. The
Speaker 1: candy is from the yellow that's always associated with it.
Speaker 1: So like if you handed somebody just like a noncolored,
Speaker 1: like just gray piece of candy. They had that same
Speaker 1: banana flavor and didn't tell him what it was supposed
Speaker 1: to be, Like, what chance would they have of actually
Speaker 1: identifying it as banana? You should start a line of
Speaker 1: great candy, right, it's called who cares? Josh is famous?
Speaker 1: Great candy? Earth diesse? Who cares? No? I think I
Speaker 1: think with you? Uh, In fact, I think there's enough
Speaker 1: for a short stuff there. There's actually a lot of
Speaker 1: information about banana flavoring. Okay, cool, let's do it. Maybe
Speaker 1: we should, But apparently not one on a watermelon flavored
Speaker 1: short stuff, No, I don't think so. So what else, Chuck?
Speaker 1: You got anything else about watermelons? Not really? I mean
Speaker 1: there are you know, watermelon festivals and stuff like that
Speaker 1: all over the country. If here into that kind of thing,
Speaker 1: it's it's sort of like any time a town has
Speaker 1: a prized fruit or vegetable and it's in the sticks
Speaker 1: in the United States, they're probably gonna have a parade
Speaker 1: about it, that's right, Which is can be a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. I'm sure why not. There's probably lots of watermelon,
Speaker 1: and everybody loves watermelon, so it can't be all that bad,
Speaker 1: right right? Um? Okay, Well, that's it for watermelon everybody.
Speaker 1: If you want to more about watermelon, go check out
Speaker 1: your local store and get started eating a watermelon. And
Speaker 1: also shout out to a really um great episode of
Speaker 1: gastro Pod. They covered the watermelons, social and natural history
Speaker 1: and that's worth checking out too. Um. And since I
Speaker 1: said that's worth checking out too, it means it's time
Speaker 1: for listening mail. I've been waiting to read this for
Speaker 1: an episode that was a little shorter because this is
Speaker 1: a little baggy, but it's worth reading. And here we are,
Speaker 1: uh with this email from Ian Bowers. Hey, guys, been
Speaker 1: listening for the better part of a decade. Well it
Speaker 1: might be the bane of some listeners existence. I love
Speaker 1: the off the wall tangents you guys fall into. You
Speaker 1: never know what's going to trigger a memory, remind you
Speaker 1: of something that happened the other day, And at the
Speaker 1: beginning of decided to keep a running tally at the
Speaker 1: best tangents then on throughout the year. Did you this No?
Speaker 1: I didn't. It's fantastic. Notice many of them tend to
Speaker 1: be movie or music related, but here a few of
Speaker 1: my favorites and what episode they were from. Are you
Speaker 1: ready for this, I'm ready. This is great. So in
Speaker 1: the episode Space Weather, What's that? We had a tangent
Speaker 1: on John Mayer and the Grateful Dead apparently. Uh. In
Speaker 1: the Hydro Power episode, we had a tangent on buttless chaps,
Speaker 1: John Belushi and Steven Stills. Okay, is the free radical
Speaker 1: theory of aging wrong? We had a tangent on justin
Speaker 1: timber Lake's attempt to revive my Space remember that it
Speaker 1: sounds like you. Uh. In Space junk Ahoy, we had
Speaker 1: a tangent on lighting farts. Yeah, I remember that one too.
Speaker 1: That that took me by surprise. Yeah. Uh. In the
Speaker 1: Havana Syndrome, we had one on Will Ferrell as Glenn
Speaker 1: Frey on s n L Glenn Fry plus two more
Speaker 1: Eagle Stories, hair Loss, The Pits colon the Pits. We
Speaker 1: had one on the smell of pizza hut, reminding Josh
Speaker 1: of solid gold. Yeah, how corporate taxes work? Hubba Bubba
Speaker 1: versus bubble yum versus bubbalicious. This is like a trip
Speaker 1: down memory lane. It really about memory lanes on our
Speaker 1: live show on Cocoa the Gorilla, I didn't know. Of course,
Speaker 1: we have tangents there too, Huey Lewis is showing his
Speaker 1: wiener in a movie. It sounds like me. I'm always
Speaker 1: talking about Huey lunas Huey Lewis is weener. I don't
Speaker 1: remember that one. Uh yeah he showed his his uh
Speaker 1: his penis and shortcuts the Robert Altman movie. Oh that's right,
Speaker 1: just taking a leak into a river. How reverse osmosis
Speaker 1: will save the world. Uh. Cypress Hill still stands up
Speaker 1: is the quote, and then another short Cypres Hill tangent
Speaker 1: shows up during heat Waves. Talked about them twice on
Speaker 1: short Stuff. Colon Chameleons, both of your favorite scenes, and beetlejuice. Yes,
Speaker 1: there's a couple of more here. The creepy legacy to
Speaker 1: Cecil Hotel, mysterious bag of crystal beans, the chuck in
Speaker 1: the middle of the night, and then a crystal food discussion,
Speaker 1: and then finally the wars somebody buying the silence of
Speaker 1: the Lamb's house and turning it to an airbnb. Yeah
Speaker 1: that's right, so Ian says, keep up the great work.
Speaker 1: I think these things really let both of your personality shine,
Speaker 1: and I think that's why most dedicated dedicated listeners continue
Speaker 1: to tune in after all the episodes you've released. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to keep track of tangents in two, but
Speaker 1: I happily welcome them. Ian, Come on, buddy, keep it up.
Speaker 1: We'll do this once a year. If you keep keep
Speaker 1: up with them, we should release Sean from his obligations.
Speaker 1: This is Ian's across to Bear. Ian could do it
Speaker 1: or not stand Ian, no one else. Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1: I think that's fair. You know, if he wants too cool,
Speaker 1: if he doesn't, we won't think any less of him.
Speaker 1: That's right. What's his last name? Tangent Guy, Ian Tangent.
Speaker 1: I are you sure it's okay? Ian Tangent Guy Bowers
Speaker 1: Tangent Guys. Definitely his new nickname for sure. Um, well,
Speaker 1: thanks a lot, Ian, that was very nice of you
Speaker 1: to do that. And yeah, if you want to do
Speaker 1: it again, we'll definitely read it next year. Uh. And
Speaker 1: if you want to get in touch with us and
Speaker 1: try to start an annual thing, take your best shot.
Speaker 1: You can try it via email at stuff podcast at
Speaker 1: iHeart radio dot com. Stuff you Should Know is a
Speaker 1: production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows,