The story of the Bradford Watermelon Company extends back more than 175 years.
"The heirloom Bradford Watermelon, long thought extinct, is being reintroduced to chefs, gardeners, and food enthusiasts around the world," states the company's website.
Farmer Nat Bradford is the latest generation to carry on his family's legacy for growing "the sweetest, most flavorful" watermelons, according to the company's website.
The company is based in Sumter and will soon bring its fruitful treasure to Aiken.
"My Great granddaddy 'Chief' Bradford was born with the green gene, with a real knack for mixing, tinkering and improving the crops on his farm," Nat wrote on the company's website. "His passion, though, was for his 'Bradford' watermelons."
The watermelons' tender skins made shipping difficult.
"Nathaniel had shared seeds of the perfected watermelon with some well-connected and successful seedsmen in the early 1850s. From those seeds a very profitable commercial line developed and soon became the most popular and widespread watermelon of the 19th century in spite of its resistance to shipping," Nat wrote. "By the early 1900s, however, watermelons had been developed with hard, thick skins and tough rinds at the sacrifice of flavor, which were ultimately more profitable because they were able to be shipped stacked many layers deep on railroad cars with very little breakage. Thus, no longer was the ambitious farmer relegated to marketing his melons to his locale, and so the greatest watermelon to have come from that great age of watermelon breeding, the Bradford watermelon, fell out of cultivation and became lost to the annals of history."
However, the Bradford family never discontinued growing the original fruit.
When Nat learned the breadth of his family's legacy, he was inspired to produce the largest batch of watermelons that his clan had ever grown – a half acre.
"It may not sound like much, but it was quite risky when the last seeds of Bradford watermelon on the planet could be contained in a couple mason jars," Nat wrote.
Nat continued to write that he felt planting the watermelons wasn't enough. There must have been a way that his family's gift could benefit others.
In 2013, Nat and his wife, Bette, began Watermelons for Water.
"Our mission was to drill fresh water wells all over the world and provide medication to treat waterborne illnesses. Our half acre of Bradford watermelons would be how," Nat wrote.
The mission sprung from a Sunday morning sermon the Bradfords attended. The pastor spoke about how thousands around the world die daily from sicknesses caused by poor drinking water, according to the Bradford Company's website.
When Nat heard that statistic, he knew that his family's watermelons could help.
Profits from the Bradford Company benefit Watermelons for Water. The cause has already helped to provide fresh water and medication to at least 12,000 people and has led to the drilling of fresh water wells in Tanzania and Bolivia.
Nat will be at Cold Creek Nurseries, 398 Hitchcock Parkway, on Aug. 26 during the Watermelon Festival from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
"(We try to have) our finger in knowing who's growing what around the state of South Carolina because that's what we like to have for customers, more local grown product in our market," said Michaela Berley, Cold Creek's store manager and marketing representative.
Customers are able to reserve their orders of the heirloom watermelons before the event by calling Cold Creek.
"The other thing about this watermelon, ... it is a late season watermelon, so it comes in during the late growing (part) of the season," Berley said. "A lot of watermelons are starting to go out of season now."
In addition to the scrumptious watermelons, visitors will also be able to pick up some of the company's other products such as rind pickles.
Local Chef Harold Wall will whip up some recipes with watermelon, and one of the day's kids activities will be making watermelon slime.
There will also be vendors and other activities for kids such as paint-a-pot.
For more information about Bradford Watermelon Company, visit www.bradfordwatermelons.com.
For more information about Cold Creek's event, call 803-648-3592 or visit Cold Creek Nurseries on Facebook.
