What have I done!!!!????

hy·brid (hbrd)
n.
1. Genetics - The offspring of genetically dissimilar parents or stock, especially the offspring produced by breeding plants or animals of different varieties, species, or races.
2.
a. Something of mixed origin or composition, such as a word whose elements are derived from different languages.
b. Something having two kinds of components that produce the same or similar results, such as a vehicle powered by both an electric motor and an internal combustion engine as sources of power for the drive train.





Some hybrids exist...





Some do not...







Let me tell you a brief tale...

I called my dad yesterday to tell him Happy Birthday (yes his Birthday is on Friday the 13th as is my own every few years). I am not a superstitious person but on occasion I do have the odd unlucky Friday the 13th. This could be said to be one of those although technically only the bad news came to me on that day.

Well I say 'bad news' but really it was only an odd little thing Dad mentioned to me. I was catching him up on life at my house... kids, wife, work, whatnot... and we come to my garden which he was interested in as he has been a gardener for a few decades. I tell him of the plenteous cucumber crop and how the tomatoes look to be quite numerous if they mature before the growing season ends. The corn I said was disappointing because we harvested a bit too late and it was sort of chewy and not as sweet as it would have been had I been more on the ball (and better educated on the subject). Then I come to the melons...

The watermelons are doing quite well AS are the cantaloupe I say to him... then there is a slight pause and he asks me a question.

"How close are your cantaloupe to your cucumbers?" Odd question I though to myself. I mean why would it matter? I know that they both attract cucumber beetles... in fact any vegetable that produces yellow flowers will attract the little buggers and those both in fact do produce similar yellow flowers... I ask "is it because of cucumber beetles? Because I've not had that big of a problem with them."

"No, no its just something I heard once from a fellow gardener."

"What is that?" I ask.

"Well," he goes on, "my friend told me once that if your cucumbers and cantaloupe are close to each other then cross-pollination can occur and produce cucumber flavored cantaloupe."

ABSURD! Who ever heard of such crazy talk? Well I mean aside from my Dad... and the fellow that told this to him. But then why would somebody make such a thing up? It still sounded just very strange to me. Today I decided to investigate because I had mentioned to DeAnna that the cantaloupe WERE sort of growing elongated rather than round like the watermelons... also they were a darker green than I imagined they would be.

What I discovered was... well, please do not scroll down if you have a weak stomach. These images may be disturbing... ... ...

BEHOLD!!! ... ... ... ...

THE.... ... ...

CUCUMBELOUPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh to all my friends and family... I'll be distributing lots of cantaloupe this year I think because we look like we're gonna have a bumper crop and well, I just don't think we'll be able to eat it all.