A Growing Business
Melon growers find sweet success
through hard work

James L. Davis

After almost 100 years of growing melons, the Vetere family knows a thing or two about how to grow a good melon and as one customer after another comes to their stands to tell them how good their melons are it is that appreciation for their product that keeps them in the fields.
“That’s what keeps us going. We’ve had people stop by and tell us that was the best melon they’ve ever tasted. The reward is the people that like what we’re growing,” said Greg Vetere, who with his father Jay and brother Tim, manage the family business.
But even with the reward of many satisfied customers, the reality of growing melons is that you’re going to work at it and you’re going to work hard.
“You have to have a weak mind and a strong back,” said Jay Vetere, who has been growing melons his entire life. At 73, Jay still picks melons all day long, even after an accident that resulted in the loss of his left arm four years ago.
“It’s going to be sad when I have to quit, but it’s coming,” Jay said while sitting at one of the Vetere melon stands he started with his wife, Jackie, in 1958. Jackie passed away last year.
John Vetere started the Vetere family in the melon business in the early 1900s, starting small with 10 acres of farmland. Today the Vetere’s farm almost 100 acres of melons at 11 different fields and having so many different fields doesn’t make the workload easier. “We could produce more with less work if we weren’t so spread out,” Jay said.
The work can be demanding and they are usually in the fields from sunup until 10 p.m. harvesting their crop.
“It’s a good way to raise kids. You know when they eave that they know how to work. If you get the best education in the world that doesn’t mean that you will be able to get a job,” Greg said. “I’ve got three girls and they can outwork any boy in Green River.”
“We need a good eight employees just to pick melons,” Greg said. They are lucky in the fact that some of their employees stay on year round to work for them. “I’ve got some guys who have worked here for 16 years.”
With harvest season in full swing, Vetere melons can be found from Spanish Fork to Sal Lake City, from Vernal to Roosevelt, and if it is a Vetere melon, they guarantee it will be a melon you’ll love.
“We believe in what we sell and we guarantee everything we sell,” Greg said.

Farmers grow reputation for great melons

Annalee Thayn

Green River is famous all over Utah for its delicious melons. Green River has the right combination of weather and soil for their great taste. The growing season for melons is long, generally about 120 days, lasting from April until August. Then begins the mad harvest and selling, because although melons are available into the fall, after Labor Day sales begin to dwindle as people stop thinking about these “summer” fruits. They are plentiful until first frost.
Chris Dunham began growing melons in the late 1950’s as a child with his parents, brother, and sisters. Today, still with the help of his family, he raises nearly 20 different types; among these are Crenshaw, Casaba, Canary, and Israeli. He also grows orange and green honeydew.
Dunham is able to get an earlier start on melon season because he hothouses his melons. The seeds are started in a greenhouse, and the heat and protection jump-start the plants. “The seeds grow more quickly, but require more labor,” says Dunham. With hot housing he can usually have melons for the Fourth of July, and he has even had some of his variety melons last into November.
Another area farmer, Lee Thayn, is also in the Melon business, and also has the help of his family. He began in 1979 to plant some melons, but it took a few more years to decide to go into the melon business. Thayn only grows two types of melons: Crimson Sweet watermelons and Caravel cantaloupe. Despite their names, watermelons don’t’ require a lot of water. Because of the soil they are watered only 3-4 times during the season.
In the ‘90’s Thayn began putting “Thayn Green River Melon” stickers on his melons.
“The Green River product is good, and people should know where the melons come from” he said. Now the buyers call Thayn and ask that the melons have stickers on them. He also put a loading dock and scales on his farm to help load and weigh the semi trucks and trailers. Thayn ships most of his melons to the Salt Lake distribution centers: Associated Food Stores and Eagle Eye Produce in Northern Utah, where they are then distributed over the region.
Both Thayn and Dunham sell their melons to anyone who stops by with an empty pickup truck. They also both have 80-100 acres dedicated to melons. Dunham sell his melons in four states: Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. Thayn once had someone report to him that he had seen a “Thayn” melon in Kalispell, Mont.; another person saw one in Green River, Wyo.
Both men credit Green River’s cool nights and hot days with helping the sugar content develop in their sweet crops. Dunham believes melons grown in California come a bit closer to tasting as delicious as the Green River melons because their climate is similar to ours, but the melons grown in Texas just don’t come close.

City Park improvements on horizon

James L. Davis

OK Anderson Park is going to get a facelift as Green River makes an investment in its youth with new playground equipment in the coming weeks.
All of the playground equipment currently at the city park will be replaced with the exception of the swing set, according to Karen Smith, Green River City clerk.
The new playground equipment will include four slides, a climbing rock wall and tunnels to allow Green River children a safer environment to play in. The old equipment at the park is not up to code.
“The park is used all of the time by locals and tourists,” Smith said.
An added attraction at the park will be the inclusion of four water features at the park near the restrooms. The water features will allow children to activate sprays that are on a timer to cool down during the hot Green River days. The water features will capture and recycle the water and take the place of water features that Green River youth have improvised themselves over the years, namely, the drinking fountains.
Children use the drinking fountains to spray each other with water and cool down, so with the new water features for youth perhaps the drinking fountains can go back to being used for what they were intended.
The park improvements are expected to be in place by Oct. 9. “We were hoping to get it done by Melon Days but that didn’t work out, so we’ll wait to tear up the old equipment until after Melon Days,” Smith said.
Green River City officials planned for the park improvement when they put together the budget for this year. The budget allowed for the expenditure of $60,000 for the improvements and the cost of the equipment will come in under budget at $54,000.

Event schedules won’t cause conflicts

James L. Davis

With the Celebration of Heroes event being planned in Huntington on Sept. 15 in the aftermath of the Crandall Canyon Mine disaster there are some that worry that the event there will exhaust a limited supply of county resources that Green River has come to count on over the years for its annual Melon Days celebration.
The Emery County Sheriff’s Office is counted on every year to help Green River with its celebration and while the sheriff’s office will be stretched thin this year, it will be there to help Green River just as it has every year, according to Sheriff Lamar Guymon.
“We’re going to split forces and take care of both events,” Sheriff Guymon said. Carbon County has already agreed to help the county in providing law enforcement for both events to make sure they are successful.
“We really look forward to Melon Days. This will be the first Melon Days I will have missed in 36 years,” Sheriff Guymon said.
With a concert planned for Huntington on the same day, Green River Mayor Ed Bentley said Green River was inviting everyone that plans to attend the afternoon concert in Huntington to come down to Green River for a morning of festivities and melons.
“Come and participate in the parade in the morning. We’re going to try and do both. We feel for the miners over there. It’s going to be a challenge but we’ll try and turn it into a blessing for us as a way to unite us,” the mayor said.
The timing of the Celebration of Heroes was based largely on the availability of headline act Collin Raye.
On Sept. 15 Emery County’s population could potentially double for the one day and with events on the north and south side of the county, the possibility to show the world the diversity and community that Emery County represents is perhaps unparalleled.
For the men and women of the sheriff’s office, being stretched from one end of the county to the other means that some won’t be able to be in Green River for Melon Days, which will come as a disappointment for them.
“Melon Days is probably the one celebration we look forward to the most every year,” Sheriff Guymon said.

Melon Days offers fun for everyone

Green River is preparing for its biggest community event of the year as the days tick away for Melon Days 2007.
With a theme of “Got Melon” the annual event will prove to be a draw for melon lovers from throughout the region as they descend to take part in Green River’s celebration.
The festivities begin on Sept. 14 with a three man scramble golf tournament at the Green River Golf Course at 9 a.m. Vendors will be in the park from noon until dark and there will be a baseball game against Wendover at the high school starting at 1 p.m. Softball games will begin in the evening and the Melon Days Queen Pageant will begin at 7 p.m. at the high school. Square dancers will be in the park at 8 p.m.
On Sept. 15 the festivities start with Breakfast in the Park, sponsored by Close Up, at 7 a.m. Vendors will be in the park all day and the Melon Days Parade begins at 10 a.m. Entertainment will begin at 11:30 a.m., featuring local talent and the music of Crimson Rose with their genre of country, soul and 60s-70s rock and roll.
Softball games will continue throughout the day and evening and a dance will begin at 9 p.m.
Of course throughout the day there will be free melon for everyone.
In her 14th year of serving as the Melon Days chairman, Teri Parsons said this year’s Melon Days will be a huge draw for tourists to flock to Green River and most hotel rooms will be booked for the weekend.
Expecting crowds of anywhere between 3,000 to 5,000, Parsons said many in the Green River community plan their family reunions around Melon Days.
With Melon Days fast approaching, there is still time to get involved in a variety of activities being planned.
Local entertainment wishing to perform should contact Kalynn Fail at 564-8230. To be involved in the softball games call Luke Shorts at 564-8479 and if you have a float you want to have in the parade call Julie Steuer at 564-3226.