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Bender’s Surprise
95 days
A once popular variety. Fruits oblong to round in shape, distinctly ribbed, coarsely netted, averaging 6-7 pounds.
Flesh is salmon colored, very thick, and a real nice sweet 'old time' muskmelon taste. Turns a grayish yellow at maturity.
Bred by Charles Bender of New York about 1900.

Sold Out for 2008

Long John 
80-85 days
Green fleshed fruits average about 2 - 2 ½ pounds, 6-8 inches in length with some melons slightly longer.
Shape is oval to a long oval with fairly prominent ribbing and are heavily netted. Rind is about ¼ inch thick and is strong and tough helping to protect the melons. Flesh color is light green, slightly tinted with a pale pink around the seed cavity, flesh is firm and measuring about 1 - 1 ¼ inches thick, moderately juicy, aromatic and sweet.

This melon originated in Arundel County, Maryland and was introduced by the Meyer Seed Company of Baltimore in 1930. It's now quite rare and has not been available commercially for many, many years.

We are pleased to be re-introducing this melon back into the hands of gardeners.

Rare and Limited supply for 2008

Old Time Tennessee Muskmelon
100 days
A very old variety. It has been dropped from commercial catalogs, is rare and seems to be near extinction. The fruits weigh an average of 12 pounds, are 12 to 16 inches in length, and are elliptical or football-shaped. Our family has grown this melon for well over 50 years.

This is my personal favorite muskmelon. They must be picked at the peak of ripeness, when the fruit has turned a golden-yellow and they easily slip from vine. They should be dead ripe for the best taste. They do not keep very long. Sweet aroma that will carry over a long distance. Definitely not a shipping melon." This is a garden-to-table melon.

Plum Granny (Queen Anne’s Pocket) (Vine Pomegranate) (Perfume)
75 days
This highly fragrant heirloom melon has been around for hundreds of years and were said to have been favored by the Victorian Ladies of the era who carried them in their pockets and purses as perfume to help mask body odors when one was not able to bathe. Apple-sized fruit are yellow with deep orange stripes with white flesh.
Although some local people find the taste pleasing we find the taste rather bland. They make for an excellent ornamental with one or two melons filling up a whole room with their perfume like fragrance. Very small sized seed.

My grandmother maintained these seed for many years. She always liked having a melon or two in the house for the wonderful fragrance they gave off.

Schoon's Hardshell Muskmelon
90 days
An oval shaped, well netted melon with a very hard shell that can reach upwards to 7-8 pounds. Thick apricot-colored flesh is juicy, solid and of fine quality. Has shown good resistant to worms. Schoon's Hardshell is a good dependable melon for the home garden and local market.

Tip Top (Livingston’s Tip Top Nutmeg)
90 days
Introduced by A.W. Livingston Seed Company in 1892, this grand old melon was once the standard by which all other melons were judged. Livingston’s first observed this melon being sold at a ‘fancy’ vegetable stand in Columbus, Ohio by a gentleman formally from Lancaster Pennsylvania who had brought the seed with him when he relocated to Ohio.

Fruit are large, averaging 6-8 pounds; shape is round to oblong, distinctly ribbed with moderate to light netting. Flesh is a deep salmon, very thick and sweet. You can just about eat it down to the outside rind.

The following statement describing Tip Top appears in the old Livingston’s catalogs and we think still holds true today.

 The testimony of all who use Tip Top is that every melon produced, whether big or little, early or late, is a good one; sweet, juicy, finest flavor, firm fleshed and eatable to the outside coating.

  25 seed -- $2.50 50 seed -- $3.75 100 seed -- $7.00