What Makes Pecos Cantaloupes So Good, and Where to Get Them in Midland/Odessa
Summer is approaching and summer means that Pecos cantaloupes will be readily available soon. But what makes them so good, and where can you find them.
According to Texas Co-op Power, the reason the cantaloupes are so good is because of the combination of potassium, magnesium, and calcium salts in the soil that give the cantaloupes their sweetness and makes them the most delicious melons in the world.
But the famous Pecos cantaloupes are not actually grown in the city of Pecos, but in the County of Pecos and around the town of Coyanosa. If you are new to the area, Pecos is the county seat of Reeves County while Fort Stockton is the county seat of Pecos County.
When the cantaloupes were grown in and around the city of Pecos, at their peak in the 1990s there were about 1,800 acres where the melons were planted, that number is now down to about 100 acres.
The reason the planting of the melons moved to Coyanosa was that the water table fell and oil and gas became more important around the city of Pecos which made the cost of growing the world-famous melons go up and unprofitable for those who had grown the melons since the beginning of the 1900s.
1982 is when the first crop of cantaloupes was planted and grown in Coyanosa by the Mandujano brothers. The brothers found out the soil around Coyanosa had the same high concentration of potassium as the soil around Pecos so the cantaloupes would not lose their famous sweetness.
Now, where can you find them? They will be available beginning in July to many grocery stores in the area like the big chains of H-E-B and Walmart, and also the smaller grocery stores in the area like Fiesta Foods grocery stores. You can also find them being sold by roadside vendors all over Midland and Odessa.