Rural Missouri - July 2022 - 18

Sunrise outside Hornersville finds crews already hard at work in the watermelon beds at Droke Family Farms. The summertime fruits are cut,
picked, graded and boxed for distribution entirely by hand.
by Zach Smith | zsmith@ruralmissouri.coop
M
issourians are accustomed to seeing school
buses in the summer. In the Bootheel, they're
likely to be found parked in the middle of a
field or traveling country roads between farms.
These buses are slightly modified, the seats and windows
having been removed because their passengers are not
students but watermelons.
" When I was a kid, a lot of people would raise a patch
of melons when they didn't require any infrastructure, "
says Steve Droke, a Pemiscot-Dunklin Electric Cooperative
director and fourth-generation Bootheel farmer. " So,
in this area we really don't have more acres of melons
now than we did then, it's just that they left and left the
market to those of us who were willing to invest in the
concrete and the infrastructure. "
Steve has seen his summers change from the 1960s
when Jubilees, Crimson Sweets, Charleston Grays and
Black Diamonds were loaded on railcars to St. Louis.
Today, seedless varieties such as Crackerjack, Road Trip
and Captivation are what the market demands, and during
peak season in July they leave Droke Family Farms
18 RURAL MISSOURI | JULY 2022
by the semitrailer load destined for stores in America and
Canada and sold under the label " Missouri Melons. " The
only thing that hasn't changed in all that time is the summertime
desire for a juicy watermelon at the backyard
barbeque or on the family picnic table, and the fact that
all those heavy fruits are truly handpicked. Steve can't
suppress a grin when he says, " People ask me, 'how do
you pick watermelons?' I say, 'one at a time.' "
On the farm in Hornersville, the Droke Family Farms
team which includes son, Skyler, plant roughly 200 acres
of melons by mid-April. They comprise the Drokes' smallest
crop, far outnumbered by beans, corn, peanuts and
cotton, but make up for their footprint in terms of sheer
labor. Soil probes, which give moisture, water pressure
and nutrient readings, must be set. Combined with the
weather stations, these give farmers invaluable data about
what's happening to the crops below the surface - sometimes
with surprising results. A cotton field one day after
a rain may still read as adequately moist, while the melon
beds are dry. Surrounding each season, the irrigation
drip tape and plastic sheeting must be installed and then
picked up and put back into storage.
" We've learned a lot about watering, " Steve says, noting

Rural Missouri - July 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Rural Missouri - July 2022

Contents
Rural Missouri - July 2022 - Cover1
Rural Missouri - July 2022 - Cover2
Rural Missouri - July 2022 - Contents
Rural Missouri - July 2022 - 4
Rural Missouri - July 2022 - 5
Rural Missouri - July 2022 - 6
Rural Missouri - July 2022 - 7
Rural Missouri - July 2022 - 8
Rural Missouri - July 2022 - 9
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Rural Missouri - July 2022 - 18
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Rural Missouri - July 2022 - 54
Rural Missouri - July 2022 - Cover3
Rural Missouri - July 2022 - Cover4
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