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Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 12:10 am
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Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 10:43 am
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Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 12:45 am
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Gweener Square Watermelons
Japanese grocery stores had a problem. They are much smaller than their US counterparts and therefore don’t have room to waste. Watermelons, big and round, wasted a lot of space. Most people would simply tell the grocery stores that watermelons grow round and there is nothing that can be done about it. But some Japanese farmers took a different approach. ”If the supermarkets want a space efficient watermelon,” they asked themselves, “How can we provide one?” It wasn’t long before they invented the square watermelon.
The solution to the problem of round watermelons wasn’t nearly as difficult to solve for those who didn’t assume the problem was impossible to begin with and simply asked how it could be done. It turns out that all you need to do is place them into a square box when they are growing and the watermelon will take on the shape of the box.
This made the grocery stores happy and had the added benefit that it was much easier and cost effective to ship the watermelons. Consumers also loved them because they took less space in their refrigerators which are much smaller than those in the US - which resulted in the growers being able to charge a premium price for them.
Commentary: The images are genuine and have not been manipulated.
In fact, square watermelons have been grown in Japan for a number of years. According to a BBC news article published in June 2001, a Zentsuji farmer came up with the innovative idea for a space-saving square watermelon some twenty years earlier. Since then, the square fruit has been sold in various selected outlets across Japan, but they are prohibitively expensive to buy and their potential market is therefore quite limited. The BBC article noted: Today the cuboid watermelons are hand-picked and shipped all over Japan.
But the fruit, on sale in a selection of department stores and upmarket supermarkets, appeals mainly to the wealthy and fashion-conscious of Tokyo and Osaka, Japan's two major cities.
Each melon sells for 10,000 yen, equivalent to about $83. It is almost double, or even triple, that of a normal watermelon.
"I can't buy it, it is too expensive," said a woman browsing at a department store in the southern city of Takamatsu.
According to another 2001 news article about the square fruit, it was doubtful that there would be much of a potential market for them in the US. However, in 2006, British supermarket chain, Tesco announced plans to sell square watermelons in the UK at much more affordable prices than those sold in Japan. An August 2006 Food Business Review article noted that the square fruit was being produced in Brazil especially for Tesco and was grown using wooden boxes rather than glass containers.
Garden hobbyists have also dabbled in square fruit production. A North Carolina resident has even grown square tomatoes after hearing about the square watermelons grown in Japan. And an August 2007 Lansing State Journal article offered gardeners instructions for growing square watermelons using cinder blocks.
Oh I have heard of them! I even poked one....xD. They're really cool...but they look hard to eat.
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 7:57 pm
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Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:24 am
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Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 2:16 pm
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Music of Insanity Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 5:24 pm
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Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 8:33 am
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Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 12:52 pm
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Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2010 7:36 pm
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