In a broadcast that originally aired on The Food Garden Life Radio Show, we chat with author Amy Goldman about growing melons, growing tomatoes, her passion for seed-saving, and about her research when writing her books The Melon and The Heirloom Tomato: From Garden to Table. Recipes, portraits, and history of the world's most beautiful fruit.

The Melon

Goldman took nine years to write this tribute to melons that is filled with mouth-watering pictures and information about selecting varieties, growing, seed-saving, and melon recipes.

She explains that when writing the book, she would set aside the best specimens for photographs—and she and photographer Victor Schrager would then enjoy eating them after the photo shoot.

“When we were doing the melon book we would photograph the specimens and then have a feast afterwards.”

Did you know that charentais melons are the true cantaloupes; and that they’re different from the American muskmelons that we mistakenly call cantaloupes?

Goldman says that she babies her melon plants by starting the seedlings indoors, using a black plastic mulch over the soil, covers young melon plants with row covers, and waters judiciously.

Her advice on eating melons? “They’re meant to be shared.”

Images from The Melon

Banana Melon

Cob Melon

Mint Julep

Orangeglo Melon

Queen Anne Pocket Melon

Melon and Watermelon Seeds

Heirloom Tomatoes

Was the original Brandywine tomato pink-fleshed with a potato-like leaf or red-fleshed with regular leaves? “This is something that only a gardening nerd would care about,” says Goldman. (Incidentally, it’s the latter.)

“Doing the detective work was half the fun of that book!”

“There’s nothing in the world like a homegrown tomato ripened in the full sun. There’s nothing like it,” she says.

Images from The Heirloom Tomato: From Garden to Table

Aunt Ruby

Cherry Tomatoes

Chile Verde

Stuffer Tomatoes

Seed Saving

Goldman is passionate about seed-saving and sharing and perpetuating heirloom varieties. For gardeners new to seed saving, she recommends a book called The Seed Garden, from The Seed Savers Exchange.

“It’s the bible of seed saving.”

Connect with Amy Goldman

Website: amygoldmanfowler.com
Instagram: heirloomharvester

Biggs-on Figs Segment

Pennsylvania fig grower Ross Raddi joins us in the Biggs-on-Figs segment to talk about three fig varieties he recommends for gardeners who are growing figs for the first time.