![]() ![]() Like Fredericksburg peaches, or East Texas tomatoes, their reputation was linked to the land. The Mandujanos planted 260 acres of the crop this year, along with other produce.įor a century, farmers planted cantaloupes around Pecos. That fell to 1,300 acres in 2017.Īround Pecos, harvested acreage plummeted from more than 2,000 in 1969 to roughly a tenth of that amount in 2017. Texas farmers harvested nearly 10,000 acres of cantaloupe in 2000, according to the U.S. Farming and ranching once central to the Pecos region now seem to have faded into the background. Oil and gas equipment stands on hot, dusty, empty fields. Industry is redefining this place, as it has many Texas towns before it. ![]() They steer cautiously among big trucks barreling down their small country roads. Pecos, a city of roughly 10,000 on the eastern edge of the Chihuahuan Desert, feels like a middle-of-nowhere boomtown. Mandujano and his two brothers are the last farmers selling them on a large scale.Ī number of factors explain this decline. But today, Pecos cantaloupes are on the verge of extinction. The Houston Chronicle reports many Texans swear these cantaloupes are the best anyone can find. The melon's dense flesh glistened with juice, its color a deep orange. COYANOSA - Beto Mandujano jabbed his kitchen knife through the rough, yellow rind of the Pecos cantaloupe he had scooped from the ground. ![]()
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