An Heirloom Hunters Feature
The Heirloom Hunters are Deb “Stone Fruit” Freeman and Joshua “Fruit Stand” Fitzwater. Since 2019, the duo drove through the American South and Eastern seaboard from their home state of Virginia searching, learning about and tasting heirloom fruits and vegetables with a particular focus on watermelons. To date, they have tried some forty plus varieties of heirloom watermelon. The following article is a follow-up to “Heirloom Hunters: Louisiana’s Calhoun Watermelons” published in the 015 edition of Southern Grit Magazine.
Article by Debra Freeman
Photography by Joshua Fitzwater
Lead photograph above: Joshua Fitzwater with a portion of his and his father’s 2022 heirloom Red-N-Sweet watermelon harvest in Halifax, VA
I thought I knew watermelons. I knew watermelons in the idealized way that most people know watermelon – eating a slice of ruby red flesh on a sweltering summer day, and for a flashing moment the mind numbing heat and humidity acquiesces to the momentary coldness on the tongue, tasting the candy sweetness and all’s right with the world. In recent years, however, tasting a watermelon like that is so rare that it almost feels that moment was an illusion, and we’ve all been forced to chase the dragon every summer, in search of that crimson fleshed flashback that we remember from our childhood.
The Red-N-Sweet heirloom watermelon
Thankfully, two years ago, I finally had that moment again, and not only did I know I wasn’t imagining things, that bite was even better than I remembered. Hiding in plain sight, deep in a small parish in Louisiana, the Red-N-Sweet was almost lost to the world, but thanks to a lauded horticulturist, the arduous work of growers, a watermelon warrior, and a determined father, this watermelon is finally ready to take its place as the sweetest watermelon in America.
Horticulturist Kerry Heafner in 2021 checking on the small Red-N-Sweet watermelon patch at Belle Haven Kids Farm in Calhoun, Louisiana
So why hasn’t the Red-N-Sweet become a household name in the way that other melons like the Bradford, Rattlesnake, and the Jubilee have? The answer, unfortunately, comes down to money. The Red-N-Sweet was created at the Louisiana State University Agriculture Calhoun Research Center, which opened in 1888. Horticulturists at the center in 1957 began breeding watermelons. Among those bred and released were the Calhoun Gray, Summit, Calhoun Sweet, and La Queen varieties which were ultimately crossed to create the Red-N-Sweet in 1987. Dr. John Chester Taylor and Dr. C.E. Johnson at the center were credited and oversaw the efforts. A few decades later, in 2011, the Center closed due to budget cuts, and ultimately, many varieties of fruit and vegetables grown there were lost.
Assorted photos starting in 2020 documenting Heafner’s efforts to save the Red-N-Sweet heirloom watermelon from being lost (photos courtesy of Heafner)
Fast forward to 2020, horticulturist Kerry Heafner gave a presentation on heirloom apples at the Marion Garden Club in Union Parish. After his speech, a woman, “Miss Lula” Shurtleff, mentioned that she had watermelon seeds she thought might have been cultivated at the Calhoun Research Center. When Heafner went to her home to pick up the seeds, she pulled a tin out of the freezer that was filled with bags of seeds. One of those bags happened to have Red-N-Sweet seeds inside, and Heafner that year successfully grew and confirmed them to be Red-N-Sweets. The following year, Heafner brought Red-N-Sweet plants to William and Rebecca Cook of Indian Village Harvest Farm, who planted a small patch of them at neighboring Belle Haven Kids Farm in 2021.
That same year, Joshua Fitzwater, the publisher of Southern Grit Magazine, who also happens to be an heirloom watermelon grower, watched all of this unfolding on Heafner’s Facebook page, and messaged him, asking if he could come to north Louisiana from Virginia to try the melon for himself. After a close to 2,000 mile drive by Fitzwater and I, Heafner was gracious enough to allow Fitzwater to procure the Red-N-Sweet, and after he tasted it, he knew he had to get it into the hands of growers like himself.
In 2022, Fitzwater enlisted help from his father, Anthony Fitzwater, who had grown other heirloom watermelon varieties previously. Together they planted the well watched after seeds on Anthony’s property in Halifax, Virginia.
Anthony Fitzwater in 2022 with a harvested 26+ pound Red-N-Sweet watermelon in Halifax, VA
Anthony is seventy years old, and the time spent with his son growing these rare watermelons last summer produces the type of memories you want to hold on to. Did the two of them bicker over details like what to do when faced with failing watering measures, the occasional varmint thief, and differing opinions concerning mound size and spacing? Of course they did, but if either were asked, neither would change a thing. Even the hand watering they had to do under the blazing sun when the hoses became practically useless was a nuisance better left in. Ultimately, Fitzwater and his father yielded close to a hundred Red-N-Sweet watermelons, and nearly half of the melons were deemed optimal for seed saving (as they landed in the breed standard weight range of 18-22 pounds, as defined by the Louisiana State University Agriculture Calhoun Research Center all those years ago). The enthusiasm of Fitzwater and his father at their success only grew when the first brix counts (sugar measurements) registered in the high range of 11%-14%, which were the same results that Heafner experienced in Louisiana.
Photos from the Fitzwaters 2022 Red-N-Sweet watermelon grow out for seed saving
The Fitzwaters had done it. This special melon, from a research center dating back more than a century, would be commercially reintroduced once again and find its way into the hands of growers, where it should have never strayed.
Debra Freeman with some of the Fitzwater’s 2022 Red-N-Sweet saved seed
However, seed preservation was not the only triumph the two garnered with the grow. A passionate desire for the Red-N-Sweet broke out as soon as they pulled the first one successfully from the vine. Fitzwater, like Heafner before him, documented everything online, and the clamor for the melon came in two waves. First, Style Weekly, Richmond Magazine, The Gazette-Virginian and Farm Show Magazine, and other media outlets wrote about the extraordinary journey of the watermelon, and the younger Fitzwater made sure those writers received a Red-N-Sweet so they could also experience the watermelon’s special taste.
(Above and Below: Assorted photos from the Fitzwaters 2022 Red-N-Sweet heirloom watermelon grow in Halifax, VA. With the primary goal to continue Louisiana based horticulturist Kerry Heafner’s work to save the Red-N-Sweet, the Fitzwaters harvested a seed bank and reintroducing the heirloom commercially. The Fitzwaters would also introduce Virginians to this special watermelon. Leading restaurants, chefs, brewers and mixologists in cities across the state presented the heirloom Red-N-Sweet in multiple forms to eager customers and foodies.)
Then, chefs, brewers, confectioners, mixologists and restaurants took notice, all wanting to work with the melon. Master brewers like Eric Tennant of Benchtop Brewing Company, leading Richmond chefs like Leah Branch of The Roosevelt, Food Network show winners like Rabia Kamara of Ruby Scoops Ice Cream and historic restaurants like The Williamsburg Inn all welcomed hand deliveries of the Red-N-Sweet to work and experiment with. From Richmond to Hampton Roads to Halifax, Virginia, the public got to experience the melon in multiple edible forms with the common denominator being the profound sweetness that only the Red-N-Sweet boasts.
As of June 2023, Fitzwater continues to ship seeds to growers across America who have heard the story of the Red-N-Sweet and want to taste some of the magic themselves. Inside each seed they plant in the ground are not only the stories of farmers and growers who have worked to bring this melon back from the brink of near extinction, but the memories of a time when the grass seemed greener, time moved slower, and watermelons tasted sweeter.
For more on the story of the Red-N-Sweet, visit HERE
To grow the Red-N-Sweet yourself, you can find seeds HERE
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