[cheerful music] I already knew that my friends, Deb Freeman and Joshua Fitzpatrick, were experts in southern food ways.

So imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered they're also passionate about heirloom watermelons.

Today we join them in a gorgeous garden in Virginia's Tidewater region to learn all about the famed red and sweet watermelon.

Hello, hello, friends.

- Hey, Sheri.

- Good morning.

Good morning.

- Good morning.

- How are you?

- Great.

Good to see you.

- Oh, it's always a pleasure to see you.

- Yes, yes.

- Hello, Sheri.

- Fitz, buddy.

- How're you doing?

- Great to see you.

So here we are in this amazing garden, and I hear that this is one of the spots that you guys have decided to grow some watermelons.

Do I have that part right?

- That's right.

- Okay.

Now I think our watermelons are right over there.

So will you let me tiptoe through your watermelon patch?

- We can do that.

- All right, let's do it, friends.

[bright music] So guys, for people that meet watermelons in the store, there's more to it than little bitty, medium, and big.

So what kind of watermelon are we visiting today?

- We are checking out the red and sweet.

And so the reason why you're not gonna see this in a grocery store, these are heirloom, like you said, which means they're at least 40 to 50 years old, the breed is, - Tell me about the red and sweet.

When I started investigating watermelons and then came across you guys, which I had known through other ways, I read that you have been known to like, take vacation days and four tanks of gas and do these odyssey in pursuit of watermelon flavor.

- Yeah, I've pretty much dragged Deb across the east coast of the United States.

- Yeah.

- To try to find the best heirloom watermelons.

And so she's been grumpy about it, but at the end of the day, [Deb laughs] she does like the taste of watermelons.

- What about the watermelons in general have intrigued you so much?

- Yeah, I think what's so interesting is there are stories behind watermelons.

Because it's never really about the watermelons, it's the story behind it.

Tasting this and tasting history, it really was absolutely worth it, because this watermelon you could only find in Monroe Parish in Louisiana.

- Really?

- And so it was just such a rare find to come across something like this and then be able to taste it, to crack it open.

We're almost like detectives in that way.

- Watermelon detectives.

- Yeah.

- And you've sort of become what I'm now calling the Johnny Watermelon seed of the Southeast.

- We've also been known to be called the heirloom hunters.

A horticulturalist, Kerry Hefner, had posted a thing online that he had essentially saved this breed.

He had met this old lady that had 'em in this tin can, the seeds.

And so he grew 'em out and found out through the records there in that area that this was the coveted red and sweet that had pretty much almost been lost in time.

- So do you see a ripe one ready for us to pick?

And by us I mean you.

[bright music] - [laughs] Yeah, this one I just cut, and this one, this one I believe we had the tendril, - Right.

- And we have the umbilical wear.

So I think we can pull this one out and we're good to go.

- Okay, let's go see if we can find a shady spot.

- Got it.

- All right.

[Joshua grunts] [bright music] Look at that.

Woo, that's pretty.

That is pretty.

Onward we go.

[upbeat music] Your expertise is more in the growing of them and all that.

But Deb, you know a lot about culinary history.

I mean, you're a real expert.

Tell me where watermelons came from.

- Watermelons, you know, they really come from West Africa.

They come from Spain.

So watermelons get to America via enslaved people.

I'm always so interested in watermelons because I'm from the south.

They were very prevalent in the south.

And so one of the cool things that I think not a lot of people may know is that enslaved people really were responsible for a lot of the growing of watermelons.

- Are you literally ready to taste the best watermelon that you've ever had?

- I don't believe that I could be any more ready.

- Okay.

- Let's go.

- Every day of my life has led to this.

[Deb laughs] Uh-huh.

Can you hear it?

Can you literally hear like the way- - I can see the juice flying outta it.

- Yeah.

- Ooh!

- It was ripe.

- Isn't that something?

- Yeah, it's gorgeous.

- They organize themselves.

I mean, it's like, you know.

- Right, and then in the middle's the heart where you'll find less seeds.

- So yeah, we're literally gonna give you a bite from the heart.

And the key thing with this is that station, the Calhoun Research Station, literally started in like, 1880 something.

- Really?

- Then the breeding program for watermelon starts in the 1950s.

And then it goes on to the '80s.

And this is the very last one that they produced in the '80s.

You're eating, you know, a hundred year plus history right now.

- It's literally repeatable history.

I mean, you're one of the things that, and that's what I was saying when we were talking earlier, you got to eat it to save it.

Because if the last person who knew that flavor, that knew that treasure was gone, we would have no reason to know we needed to keep growing it.

- Alright, here you go.

- Oh my goodness.

- And this is the only way, you don't- - Okay.

- Slice these thin.

- [Sheri] Love it.

Alright, friends.

- We gotta do a cheers.

We gotta do cheers.

- Alright.

- Absolutely.

Alright, here we go.

- You ready?

[bright music] - Oh my gosh.

- That is good.

[all laughing] [bright music] - This is like the hopes and dreams of all melons in one bite.

I mean, it's insanely juicy.

It's sweet, but not sugary.

- Mm-hmm.

- I mean, it's fruity, it's floral, but the texture I think that is hard to imagine something could be that much better or that good until you have a bite and is like, yep, the work was worth it.

- It is the story of that community for sure.

- Yes.

Yes.

- As you said about community, this watermelon is the story.

- And as you said from the beginning, it's the watermelon, but it's really the story of a watermelon that makes it special.

- Absolutely.

- And y'all are mighty special.

I got to hang out with you today.

Eat the best watermelon with two experts.

It was worth being out on this hot muggy day, wasn't it?

- Are you coming with us on the next 14, 17 hour trip that we got?

- Oh yeah.

I am, I am.

Yes, but I pick the tunes, man.

[all laughing] I pick the tunes.

- Alright.

- I can cosign on that.

- Alright.

[all laughing] Thanks, y'all.

Alright, this was great.

[bright upbeat music] [bright music]