Every year, the Gilmer family of Caledonia circles July 4th on the calendar.
It is Independence Day, of course, but for the Gilmers — the largest producer of watermelons in the Golden Triangle — the date is also a goal.
“We want to have a lot of watermelons ready for the Fourth of July,” says Johnny Gilmer, who with his family operates Cherokee Watermelons.
It looks as though, for the second straight year, the Gilmers may not reach that goal.
“We opened Monday, but we have to close down the next day,” Gilmer said. “We ran out of watermelons. I think we sold about 100. We’ll go back out (Thursday) to see if we have enough watermelons to make it worth opening the stand or going to the Farmers Market on Saturday. Right now, it’s not looking too good.”
The Gilmers sell watermelons at a stand near their property and are also a long-time vendor at The Hitchin Lot Farmers Market in downtown Columbus.
Gilmer said he expects to have a large crop of watermelons this year — they plant between 15 and 30 acres each year, which amounts to 14 miles of watermelon rows.
“The crop should be as big as any year,” he said. “But it’s going to be a late season. All the rain made us about two weeks later in getting them planted, so it looks like the crop will really start to come in in mid-July.”
Gilmer said the crop usually lasts about a month.
“Having them ready for July 4th is always our goal, but it looks like we may miss it again this year,” he said. “There’s nothing you can do about it. It’s just the way it goes sometimes.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.