Gropp Pie Melon

Market mature fruit is nearly round, lightly ridged, pale yellow skin with bright yellow stripes, mottling. Fruit average 3-4" in diameter, 7-15oz Best for fresh eating slightly before or at vine-slip, harvest a little sooner for a firmer flesh for pie-making, moist white flesh, good texture, slightly sweet, tangy, moderately fragrant. This variety was originally grown by the Molz and Gropp families of Deerfield, Kansas. The seeds came to Seed Savers Exchange from a friend of a friend of Mary Lee and Otis Molz. Otis remembers his parents - Henry and Emma (Gropp) Molz - grew the melon during the 1930s when he was a child. Otis’ grandparents, Samuel and Henrietta Gropp, immigrated to Kansas from Germany in the late 1800s. Samuel and Henrietta also grew the melon, but Otis does not know how or when they acquired it. The family uses the fruit in pies and cobbler recipes. Donated to Seed Savers Exchange in 2000 by Susan Boley-May of Cedar Falls, Iowa. SSE Accession # 113415