Honeydew (melon)

Honeydew Melon
Details
Species	Cucumis melo
Cultivar group	Inodorus Group
Origin	France

Honeydew is a cultivar group of the muskmelon, Cucumis melo Inodorus group, which includes crenshaw, casaba, Persian, winter, and other mixed melons.

Characteristics

Honeydew melon, raw (edible parts)

Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy	150 kJ (36 kcal)
Carbohydrates	9 g
- Sugars	8 g
- Dietary fiber	1 g
Fat	0.1 g
Protein	0.5 g
Vitamin C	18 mg (22%)
Sodium	18 mg (1%)
Percentages are relative to US recommendations for adults. Source: USDA Nutrient Database

The leaf of a honeydew

A honeydew has a round to slightly oval shape, typically 15–22 cm (5.9–8.7 in) long. It generally ranges in weight from 1.8 to 3.6 kg (4.0 to 7.9 lb). The flesh is usually pale green in color, while the smooth peel ranges from greenish to yellow. Like most fruit, honeydew has seeds. Honeydew's thick, juicy, sweet flesh is often eaten for dessert, and is commonly found in supermarkets across the world. This fruit grows best in semiarid climates and is harvested based on maturity, not size.

In California, the honeydew is in season from August until October.^[1]

The winter melon variety of honeydew melon should not be confused with the homonymous winter melon, more popularly found in Africa.

Origin and alternate names

"Honeydew" is in fact the American name for the White Antibes cultivar which has been grown for many years in southern France and Algeria.^[2][3] In China, honeydews are known as the Bailan melon; they are a locally famous product near Lanzhou, the capital city of Gansu province in China's northwest. According to Chinese sources,^[4] the melons were introduced to China by a Mr. Wallace, Vice president of the United States, who donated melon seeds to the locals while visiting in the 1940s (probably 1944).^{[citation needed]} This man was almost certainly Henry A. Wallace, Vice president under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who had a background in agriculture and had founded a major seed company, Pioneer Hi-Bred. As a result, in China the melon is sometimes called the Wallace (Chinese: 华莱士; pinyin: Hualaishi).^[5] The honeydew was extremely popular among the European working classes of the 19th and 20th century. Karl Marx once called honeydew the "fruit of the masses."^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Winter melon
• Piel de Sapo

Notes

1. ^ Honeydews
2. ^ http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/MV093 Report by a University of Florida horticulturist alluding to the melon's origins.
3. ^ http://food.oregonstate.edu/faq/janfaq/honeydew3.html Thorough and carefully sourced report on the melon's French heritage.
4. ^ http://www.hudong.com/wiki/%E7%99%BD%E5%85%B0%E7%93%9C This simplified Chinese page discusses how the seeds were brought to China, the connection to Wallace, dates, etc.^{[unreliable source?]}
5. ^ 白兰瓜, hudong wiki