Visit to an Indiana Amish Melon Patch

Amish children help harvest melons in the field

By Kevin Williams

After stopping at the hidden bulk food store, we went on a search for  legendary "Indiana Melons."  Cantaloupe grown in Indiana during the summer are prized for their plumpness and juicy taste and finding some is worth the effort.   When I asked about melons the lady at the bulk food store told me to stop at her brother's farm down the road.

This was a melon patch we found a couple of years ago in Wayne County, Indiana...melons that summer were selling for 25 cents a piece!

"He's the melon person in the family," she quipped.

So we headed for the next farm over where a horse-drawn cart was, sure enough, in a melon field harvesting.  I pulled up to the farmhouse and an Amish woman came out and  asked if she could help.  I inquired about melons?

"We don't have any right now," she said. "They're out in the field and they'll sell them at the produce auction."

Perhaps it was Aster's pleading eyes, but the woman seemed to have a change of heart.

"You know, they're in the field right now, I could probably get some...would you like watermelon or cantaloupe?"

I profusely thanked her and said either would be great.  So the woman and her daughter (I'm guessing about six years old) trudged out in the field, returning hauling a couple prized melons.  Yummmm.  She told me the price and I rummaged around in my pocket for a few bucks and came away with my melon.

Aster, meanwhile, was full of questions:
"Who is that little girl?" she asked of the young Amish carrying out melons out from the field.

Inside an Indiana cantaloupe: fresh, juicy melon

I explained that she lived there and that everyone was pitching in to help harvest.  A horse-drawn cart slowly made its way across the melon field and boys would scour the plants for ripe and ready melons and then toss them up to the girls on the cart who would put them in large cardboard boxes.

Then we saw a buggy parked nearby.

"That buggy is broken," Aster said. And I explained that it wasn't, it was just parked and the horses were out in the pasture.

But it was an enjoyable visit to the melon farm....Aster and I feasted on the fresh cantaloupe last night. If you are in the Wayne County, Indiana area, exploring the backroads for melons for sale is worth the effort.

A buggy parked behind a barn, Aster christened it "broken."