Every season brings along a range of fruits to savour. Currently, it is time to indulge in sweet mangoes and melons to juicy litchis- each of which will uplift the mood instantly. Now, we have a new fruit in the market! Curious to know what it is? Farmers, in Japan’s second-largest island, Hokkaido have produced an entirely new fruit called “lemon melon.” According to Tokyo-based media portal SoraNews 24, this new fruit is round in shape and when eaten it is juicy in texture. The fruit will reportedly be a little sweet like melon, but will also have a slight sourness of lemon. If you feel like giving it a try, well trust us, you aren’t alone.
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The report revealed that as of now lemon melon is being cultivated in limited quantities. Its cultivation is currently taking place in Hokkaido’s Furano by five farmers. While it comes in a similar shape to a watermelon, lemon melon’s skin doesn’t feature the stripes. The fruit inside is white. As per the report, the Japanese horticulture company that is responsible for this fruit revealed that they have bred the fruit from a type of melon, which was imported from overseas. Surprisingly, the company has been working on lemon melon over the last five years, during which they indulged in innumerable experiments revolving around cultivation methods and harvest times. So this is the first year that they have achieved success in the experiments and are able to sell the product.
The report added that one of the supermarkets in Japan was spotted selling the lemon melons at 3,218 yen, which is more than Rs 1800. Initially, the fruit is said to be crisp like pears but when it ripens over time, its texture gets much softer, similar to Hokkaido-grown Yubari melons. Reportedly, the producers this year are aiming to cultivate about 3,800 lemon melons, which will be sold out in the supermarkets of Hokkaido’s city Sapporo through the end of August. The expectations are to make lemon melon a new addition to Japan’s luxury fruit market.