Cantaloupe...for the Pope

This time of year, we start seeing much better Cantaloupe.  They actually smell like a Cantaloupe should smell.  I’m getting out the orange sherbet.  Hey, Pope Benedict XVI turns 83 years old this week, and so I thought I’d talk about a fruit that was actually first grown for the early Popesof the Catholic Church.  You know most melons originated in Persia, what we call Iran today.  In the early part of the 12th century, some of the early Popes would take a little summer vacation in a little monastery in a tiny town in the hills surrounding Rome.  This little monastery had gardeners, and  these  gardeners knew that some of the Popes loved this one particular melon which came from Persia.  These gardeners became the first to "cultivate" this Persian melon.  These gardeners worked in this little monastery in the tiny town of...Cantalupo, Italy.  And that is why we call it a Cantaloupe today.
YPM...Gettin' Fresh