Keep the faith: ‘Watermelon season’ arrives soon

Nothing says “summertime” better than a sweet and juicy hunk of an official Bogue Sound Watermelon, known for its brilliant red flesh. 

Elder watermelon statesman David Winberry of Winberry Farms in Cedar Point, N.C., told Our State magazine that the goal of  Carteret County farmers “is to always have the first crop available for the ‘melon-heads’ by July 4, the peak of tourist season.”

 

For many summer vacationers, Bogue Sound Watermelons are part of their family’s annual ritual. Lisa Wright of Fredericksburg, Va., said: “It’s the taste of summer. There are watermelons, and then there are Bogue Sound Watermelons. We always eat a few during the time we’re here, then take some back home.” 

Interviewed by local reporter Brad Rich a few years back, Wright said her family “reluctantly shares” the prized watermelons with relatives, but only those kinfolk who “deserve them.” 

“It’s true,” wrote Dr. Eleanor Spicer Rice, a contributor to Our State. “People come from across the country to load up their trunks with melons, squeeze one between the children in the back seat, cradle one in a front-seat lap.” 

The average haul per out-of-state vehicle could range from 8 to 12 Bogue Sound Watermelons each season, the growers estimate. 

An interesting part of the legend and lore of Bogue Sound Watermelons is that they were named by northern menhaden fishermen in the 1950s, according to Roy Roberson, a writer with Farm Progress, a company that publishes 22 farming and ranching magazines. 

“The fishermen in their pogie boats came to Bogue Sound for its gentle water and teeming fish supply,” Roberson said. (Menhaden were commonly called pogies.) “In the summer months, many of these fishermen would buy watermelons from local farmers.” 

Dr. David Cecelski, a prominent North Carolina historian with family roots in Carteret County’s Core Creek community, noted: “Bogue Sound farmers drove wagons full of watermelons down to the seashore and into the water, where their horses or donkeys stood haunch-deep in the shallows while the men loaded boats bound for Norfolk, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City.” 

In 2005, the watermelon farmers, led by the late Billy Guthrie, teamed with the Carteret County Cooperative Extension Service to form a new organization, the Bogue Sound Watermelon Growers Association. Its purpose was to create a unique brand and market the luscious, locally grown melons.

 

Ray Harris, who headed up the extension office at that time, clarified that “Bogue Sound Watermelons aren’t actually a variety” of the jumbo fruit. The magic is in the extra-sweet taste that makes them distinctive.”

 

“Our concept was to try and duplicate in a small way the success of Vidalia, Ga., and the branding of its Vidalia onions.”