The family farmers of the Rocky Ford Growers Association (RFGA) started planting cantaloupe seeds last week. Those amazingly sweet and juicy Rocky Ford Cantaloupes will start rolling into grocery stores across Colorado and surrounding states in mid-July.
The family farmers of the Rocky Ford Growers Association (RFGA) started planting cantaloupe seeds last week. Those amazingly sweet and juicy Rocky Ford Cantaloupes will start rolling into grocery stores across Colorado and surrounding states in mid-July. The ripest cantaloupes are picked daily through the growing season and will go from field to grocery store in about 12 hours.
RFGA members Knapp Farms and Proctor Produce kicked off the planting season during what will be a very busy couple of weeks in Rocky Ford as all eight member farms plant their cantaloupe fields. The farm fields have been prepped with a plastic mulch to reduce evaporation, and to provide a barrier between the moist ground and the cantaloupe to keep them from getting wet and rotting. A planter pokes in cantaloupe seeds about every foot, where they’ll grow into sprawling green vine-like plants that produce those world-famous Rocky Ford melons by late July.
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