Many people think of the seedless watermelons popping up at grocery stores and markets everywhere in the last few years as a marvel of modern scientific technology. In fact, more than 60 percent of watermelon shoppers seek this smoother pink flesh, and the numbers are increasing every year, according to a recent survey done for the National Watermelon Promotion Board.
The seedless melons sure are easier to eat and cut up for fruit salads. But they somehow don't taste the way they did when seed-spitting contests were the highlights of our summers.
So here at The Salt we wondered, are watermelons destined to go the way of supermarket tomatoes, where flavor has been sacrificed for convenience?
Before we get to that, a quick science lesson: How do you get a seedless watermelon? In a word – colchicine. The chemical, derived from the crocus and developed to treat and prevent gout since ancient Egypt, has found a niche in plant biology because of the way it impacts chromosome development.
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