By Jennifer Dorsett
Field Editor

The sweet aroma of cantaloupes is a summer staple on Dixondale Farms in Carrizo Springs.

“This time of year, probably 99.9 percent of our cantaloupes stay right here in the state of Texas, and we get great support from Texas retailers and the foodservice industry,” Bruce Frasier, president of Dixondale Farms, said.

The season started earlier than normal this year. A mild winter had the cantaloupes ready for harvest at the end of May instead of the first of June.

But even with a warmer winter and the uncertainty brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s an above-average year, Frasier said.

“We cut back some acreage when the coronavirus and everything hit in April. We didn’t know what the country was going to be like—if people were going to be locked down and were going to be able to go to grocery stores,” Frasier, Dimmit County Farm Bureau vice president, said. “After we put the seed, fertilizer, drip tape, all the preparatory actions in place, we’ve invested about $1,100 an acre into the crop. Once you do that, you’re committed. So, we did cut back a little bit on acreage this year, but it’s all turned out to be okay.”

Frasier said his melons are special because of the variety he grows.

“We grow a variety called Navigator, which is somewhat like the cantaloupes people used to get,” he said in an interview with the Texas Farm Bureau Radio Network. “Most cantaloupes you receive coming from Guatemala and Honduras or the West Coast, Arizona and California are what are called extended shelf-life varieties, which means they can handle the long transportation on a boat or across the country and still be good, never decay in about two to three weeks. But ours are what’s called Western shipper types, and they are a full slip variety.”

The slip is what attaches the vine to the melon. When the slip breaks loose from the fruit, they’re vine-ripened and have achieved the full extent of sugar development.

These varieties grow well in the area’s climate, according to Frasier.

“Here on the Mexican border, in spring and early summer, we still get down into the high 60s or low 70s every night. That variation of cooler weather during the night and then warm with temperatures in the 100s during the day keeps the sugar content intact,” he said.

And the melons are sweet.

“On the brix scale, our cantaloupes are testing 14 right now. So, I make the joke that we have to issue a toothbrush with each cantaloupe, so people can brush their teeth and get the sugar out of them because they’re so sweet,” Frasier said.

Because they’re vine-ripened, the melons have to be handled carefully. Each one is picked by hand and sorted by hand at the packing shed.

“We’re very blessed to have a good supply of labor. We’ve had good luck hiring a lot of folks who may have been laid off from the restaurants and the retail space, which hasn’t recovered yet,” he said.

It takes about 120 people daily to manage the cantaloupe harvest, he said.

The U.S. imports fresh produce from all over the world, which means seasonal availability for most produce has become a thing of the past, Frasier said.

“Now, you can have things year-round. You can have watermelon at Christmas, but in the past, people used to anticipate a season and look forward to it,” he said. “Luckily, people still anticipate the availability and the season for our cantaloupes. They pick up a cantaloupe, and it smells just like they remember. They buy it and put it in their car. It fills their entire car with that great sweet aroma. So, people come back for our melons because they know that special quality is going to be there every year.”