Fertile Garden Tondo di Manduria

In case you didn’t get the information from the last several blog posts that I did about the Tondo Manduria, this is a round Cucumis melo (muskmelon) that is grown immature to be picked as a tender, yet crisp and delicious cucumber.

 

The color of the cucumber varies from completely light to light with dark splotching. The variety is generally variable and, like with the Tondo Manduria I planted in the olive orchard, I planted this crop of cucumber-melons from multiple seed sources in order to see if I could propagate a better population of the variety.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While the Tondo Manduria is a favorite among many, I will forebear describing all of its virtues in this post and instead allow you to enjoy the many pictures of this culinary delight.

Updated picking recommendations for the Tondo di Manduria

After years of recommending that people pick the Carosello Tondo di Manduria when the size of a peach, I did a taste test. While the flavor of the Tondo di Manduria is still really good at the peach or baseball (roughly 3-4 inches in diameter) doing a taste test enabled me to determine that the larger fruit was not as good. In addition to a larger seed cavity with more developed fruit, the overall quality of the 4 inch fruit is not as good as the 3 inch fruit. So – in the future, I will recommend that growers pick the Tondo di Manduria when closer to 3 inches in diameter. And here’s a little video about it.