Crane melon

Eastside Road, September 18, 2012—

MY MATERNAL GRANDFATHER'S paternal grandfather, if you follow me, was one of three brothers who settled on the Santa Rosa plain, in the foothills between Santa Rosa and Petaluma.

In the lope of the years, as the Dutch say, each of the brothers begat a number of children; each of them ditto; and so on. Since my great-great-grandfather, Robert, was not the eldest, my branch lost out on the acreage, which has since dwindled considerably in any case.

I didn't know Robert, of course; he died in 1900. I knew his third son Charles, though, my great-grandfather and namesake. He was born in Santa Rosa in 1857, married locally, taught in Geyserville, farmed in Oregon for a short time, then Yolo county, and ultimately settled in Berkeley so that his son Charles, my grandfather — still with me? — could go to University.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the other branch of the family, descended from Robert's brother Richard, continued to farm. Cattle, sheep, produce. A century or so ago Richard's son Oliver was experimenting with melon hybrids, and came up with a honey -- fragrant, soft, juicy, complex. It is, I truly believe, the queen of melons -- the Charentais being the king. And, like the Charentais, like all subtle melons I should think, it is site-specific. To know the Crane melon you must taste it on its own grounds.

You can buy seeds online, and a number of farmers in our extended neighborhood grow the melon — we've bought it from at least three different farmers at the Healdsburg Farm Market. And I've grown it myself, in seeds taken from the source, melons bought at the Crane Barn south of Santa Rosa. Never, however, is the melon quite as tasty as when bought at the Barn. Terroir is important.

There are other considerations. Ripeness, of course. We smell the melon, and press it gently, and heft it to verify sugar content. The melon shows an amazing amount of visual variation: color, shape, size, even texture. It's not as standardized as more commercial varieties, and it doesn't ship well, or even hold particularly well. You have to be ready for it when it's ready for you. That's not asking too much. Slow Food was right to add it to the Ark of Taste.

Otherwise, fast today: toast and coffee, tea and nuts.