By Jessica Domel
Multimedia Editor

An early season is yielding sweet results for Texas cantaloupe lovers.

This year, Dixondale Farms in Carrizo Springs planted their cantaloupes two weeks earlier than ever before. The end result is the highest quality fruit the farm has ever grown, according to Bruce Frasier, president of the farm.

“This year, we were able to get started in mid-May. It was the earliest that we’ve ever got started. Because we had such a mild winter, we were able to plant on the first of February,” Frasier said. “We’ve been running a few weeks, and we’ll keep going until after the Fourth of July.”

The cantaloupes grown at Dixondale Farms, sold under the name Carrizo Cantaloupes, are the “old style” melons, Frasier said. They have a netting type look on the outside, color, full ripeness, high sugar and an unmistakable cantaloupe smell.

“When they pick it up in a store and they smell the stem end, or slip as we call it, they will actually pick up the odor of the sweetness,” Frasier said.

Some of the first Carrizo Cantaloupes picked were a bit small, Frasier said, but the melons being picked now are larger and still contain plenty of sweetness.

“What makes our area special is the hot days and cool nights. It’s somewhat of a desert environment. That keeps our melons’ high sugar content,” Frasier said. “To be a U.S. number one, the brix, which is a measurement of the sugar content, has to be a nine. Our cantaloupes have been running consistently at 14. I joke that people need to buy a toothbrush after they eat it, because they’re going to need to brush their teeth after they eat one of these.”

So far, the farm has shipped 35,000 cartons of Carrizo Cantaloupes all over the state.

“We keep them right here because Texas retailers want Texas products,” Frasier said.

Harvesting cantaloupes is a labor-intensive job. Each melon must be hand-picked in the field and then taken to a warehouse.

“The cantaloupes don’t know it’s Sunday. They don’t know it’s Mother’s Day. They don’t know it’s the Fourth of July. They ripen every day,” Frasier said. “So we have to pick them seven days a week because we pick at full slip when they’re at the peak of their sugar content and peak of their ripeness. We pack them, chill them and ship them out that day.”

Carrizo Cantaloupes are delivered the day after they’re picked so they’re at peak maturity and sweetness.

“It means that you’ve got to have a lot of people. We have machines that load the cantaloupes right into trailers, but it takes somewhere around 100 people for us to be able to pick up all those cantaloupes and pack them in the shed every day,” Frasier said.

What sets his cantaloupes apart from others, according to Frasier, is their freshness and sweetness. Cantaloupes from other states, or those grown in the off-season, are often bred for shipping and shelf-life, not sweetness and flavor.

“We appreciate the folks who go to the produce managers and ask for the Carrizo Cantaloupes,” Frasier said. “We’ve been very blessed to continue our farming operation for our fourth generation. We need the support of Texans who support Texas products.”

Dixondale Farms has been in business in the Winter Garden area for 104 years.