Eating Green, Out of the Blue!

We rent a house in a suburban area. We have a front yard - green and leafy - and a back yard containing only sandy, compacted, dry dirt, that hasn't been watered, or, indeed, acknowledged, in about 10 years.

One morning in July, a shoot poked its head through the dirt in the back yard, and we dutifully ignored it. Then somebody suggested it might yield food one day, and perhaps we should water it. Hey, why not?

In an attempt to reduce our water usage, we have a Save The Kinneret dish-washing method: we wash everything in a bowl of soapy water, set the dishes to one side, then rinse into a bucket. We then pour the bucket of water over the plants in our garden (you will not believe how much water it takes to rinse a few plates! Folks, try this one at home!)

So we poured bucketfuls of water over our baby seedling and watched a miracle take place. It grew long arms and gorgeous little yellow flowers, and then sprouted fruit that looked like hard-skinned dark green plums. We had no idea what it was, pumpkin? watermelon? Those yellow flowers and large green leaves, I discovered, are the signature features of many plants. The fruit grew and grew and then stopped growing. It was now about the size of a large grapefruit. We harvested it (okay, it was just one thin stem), sliced it open, and behold: a delicious, crunchy, green melon!

Talk about local and organic: we didn't plant the seed, we used recycled water, and a vine grew in our backyard, turning the sun's rays into food. Is that awesome or what?