“We actually got off to a quicker start, in terms of an earlier harvest than we have in the past. This is the earliest one and that’s due to the heat stress we had in June,” said Aaron Reeves.
Reeves is a member of the Weaver family, he spends his days tending to the fourth- and fifth-generation farm in Holcomb known as Weaver Farms.
The family-operated business is run by Terry Don and Becky Weaver, along with their children Matt and Tiffani Casper and Aaron and Elizabeth Reeves.
This year’s early watermelon harvest is no surprise since the fruit, native to Africa, needs hot, sunny conditions to thrive. The recent above-average temperatures have sped up the growing process this year according to Reeves, making the harvest at Weaver Farms as bountiful as ever, “We’re going to harvest over 15 million pounds of fruit this year.”
The farm has been fortunate that supply chain issues have not been a factor for them this season as they have been for so many other businesses.
“Some of our supplies have been a little tight in terms of the plastic mulch we were laying down, that’s really been the hardest thing to come by,” said Reeves. “It comes from overseas so we just had some shipping delays but we’ve been pretty fortunate that we haven’t run into a whole lot of issues in terms of getting necessary stuff. We’re kind of blessed that we’re not facing those issues that other sectors are running into.”
According to choosemyplate.gov, watermelon is ranked No. 1 on the list of budget-friendly fruits, claiming that at an average of $0.14 per serving you can feed up to three dozen people with one watermelon. That would need to be a large watermelon, but Reeves says they have grown melons over one-hundred pounds just for the novelty, though the larger melons’ flavor is not as pleasant.
Many people do not know that there is more to growing melons than just planting a seed in the ground.
“We partner with a local business and they supply us with bees, we put honey bees on every watermelon acre, what it does is help pollinate seedless with the seeded to make plants,” explained Reeves. “You can’t plant a seedless watermelon plant out there and not have a male pollinator plant, meaning a seeded watermelon plant and a seedless, if you don’t have those two pollinating with each other they will not produce any fruit.”
Watermelon is 92% water making it a considerably healthy snack option, and while most people dispose of the outer green rind, it can be eaten too. The rind is said to be rich in fiber as well as other nutrients, antioxidants, minerals and vitamins according to the healthy eating government website listed above.
There are many notable health benefits of eating watermelon rind. It is said to improve the appearance of the skin, strengthen the immune system, lower blood pressure, assist with sexual performance and aid in weight loss.
There are an abundance of recipes online using watermelon as well as the rind, from smoothies and jams to pickling the rind for later use.
Due to the rising cost of everything the price of watermelon has gone up this year, according to Reeves.
“We’ve got a 25-40% increase to get our crop in the ground. And, you know, at some point you’ve got to pass that on to the consumer as well, that’s basically all we’ve done. We’ve tried our best and cut some costs in some things, so we’re trying to trim as much as we can, but ultimately, just like every other business we have had to increase our prices a little bit to offset our additional input costs.”
For more information about the farm or to inquire about what fruit is available visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/WeaverFarms4.