Jenny Lind Delight?

Now, I am not much of a melon fan - when I was nine years old I entered a watermelon eating contest and remained traumatized for years afterwards. "Mixed fruit bowls" that consist of nothing but cantaloupe and honeydew drive me nuts when I visit restaurants. So when I set eyes on the Jenny Lind melon from the CSA this week I was not terribly excited. The Jenny Lind, named for a famous European opera singer, is a type of cantaloupe that is not generally commercially grown. Apparently, home gardeners tend to favor it because of its relatively small size and temperate nature but it is too delicate to transport long distances.

I started my exploration with the traditional sniff test - this melon smelled like candy, very sweet and light. With this much sugar in it, I thought, how bad can it be?











We sliced it open (reminded me a bit of a cross between an acorn squash and a cantaloup) and jumped right in. It was even sweeter than it smelled. I'm not big on very sweet things - I don't sweeten my coffee and if it isn't 70% dark, chocolate doesn't make my shopping list. So this melon was interesting, but not a favorite.

I probably won't go out of my way to find another Jenny Lind melon, but it is kind of cool to try something new, especially something that generally cannot be found at the store.