Long before it became famous for the coconut trees at Maddani near St Anne’s Church, Parra was famous for watermelons. The film, Dear Zindagi, changed the USP, but not forever: the ‘Melon Nite’ is back in 2024!
The parishioners of the St Anne parish are, once again, presenting the craze of the previous decade as a sundowner event beginning at 6 pm, with music, dancing, fruits, food and beverages.
The sudden showers on Saturday, April 20, 2024 cooled the temperature for a day and encouraged people to participate in the Konkan Fruit Fest 2024, held at Navelim. Fortunately so, because the streets of Panjim were underwater that day!
The day temperatures are on the rise again, and there is nothing as refreshing as a cool watermelon in the afternoon.
One can bite into a slice of ripe watermelon, or drink a glassful of chilled watermelon juice and feel the difference. Perhaps, that and the heat of the upcoming general election has made the people of Parra think about their watermelons again.
REVIVING WATERMELONS
The revival of watermelon cultivation in the sleepy village of Parra began when Delilah Lobo was the sarpanch.
It was supported by the now defunct units of the Ciba and Syngenta companies as a part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and the hybrid variety, Agusta, quietly substituted the original open-pollinated variety of watermelon.
The Hybrid Agusta and IARI-ICAR variety, Sugar Baby, are two popular dark green skinned and red fleshed varieties of watermelon. They are marketed as the ‘local’ variety of Parra village because of the dark green skin colour, although Agusta is a recent hybrid.
While Darshana Pednekar from Araddi-Parra waxes eloquent about how the locally grown watermelons have changed her economic status, my friend and classmate through school, Andrew D’Souza from Bastora, has been instrumental in promoting the Augusta variety of watermelon to revive cultivation in Parra village.
SOME BACKGROUND
Watermelon, Citrillus lanatus, is a native of tropical South Africa. Those familiar with the Gondwanaland theory will make the connection.
The others can argue whether the Portuguese or English brought it to India, or whether it came with the African soldiers or slaves in the various kingdoms along the West coast of present-day India.
The watermelon is closely related to other plants like pumpkin, cucumber, zucchini, muskmelon and the cantaloupe. However, muskmelon, that is often mistakenly referred to as ‘mashmelon’ (chibudd in the native Konkani language) in Goa, evolved in Europe and has softer flesh.
The sweetness and taste of a watermelon depends on the ripening. Watermelons, like oranges and apples, do not ripen after harvest.
The discoloured patch, where the watermelon rested on the ground, indicates whether the watermelon was ripe when harvested. It should be creamy or yellow, but not white.
The watermelon is closely related to other plants like pumpkin, cucumber, zucchini, muskmelon and the cantaloupe.
A white patch indicates that it was harvested before ripening and is unlikely to be sweet.
Watermelons are sweeter when grown with organic manure. The Government of Goa promotes natural farming. So does the Goa College of Agriculture at Ela Farm in Old Goa. We can hope to have more watermelons grown organically and in Goa in the coming years.
(The author is the former Chairman of the GCCI Agriculture Committee, CEO of Planter's Choice Pvt Ltd, Additional Director of OFAI and Garden Superintendent of Goa University, and has edited 18 books for Goa & Konkan)