Field guide · Summer

Cantaloupe melon

Meloa in Portugal — and it is not a small melão, it is a different melon. Melão is the big pale one; meloa is this, round and ribbed and orange inside, sold by the armful through August. Melancia, one letter further along, is the watermelon. The name is said to come from Cantalupo, a papal estate outside Rome where the seed was grown in the eighteenth century, and in North America it has drifted onto a heavily netted muskmelon instead. Sniff the blossom end: sweet and musky means ready, nothing at all means a week early. Simplest thing to do with it: quarter it cold and lay cured ham over it.

Noted 2026-08-03