Project to revive Montreal melon hope Québécois nostalgia will bear fruit where others have failed

// custom header art window.tgam.meta.photo_desktop = "https://www.theglobeandmail.com/resizer/v2/V4H4ZJIDZNDQRHV2ZAN72BPGOU.JPG?auth=20112c08648efe15c903653ff45a26109262fb1d4e06b195deae634aaf85b0e0&width=1300&quality=80"; window.tgam.meta.photo_mobile = "https://www.theglobeandmail.com/resizer/v2/V4H4ZJIDZNDQRHV2ZAN72BPGOU.JPG?auth=20112c08648efe15c903653ff45a26109262fb1d4e06b195deae634aaf85b0e0&width=1300&quality=80"; window.tgam.meta.video = ""; window.tgam.meta.caption = "At Green Barn Farm in Notre-Dame-de-l'Île-Perrot, Que., ‘we grow all sorts of weird stuff. We do everything,’ says Ken Taylor, who played a role in the revival of the Montreal Green Nutmeg melon."; window.tgam.meta.credit = ""; // custom header layout parameters window.tgam.meta.headline_overlay = false; window.tgam.meta.headline_overlay_vertical_position = "top"; // top, centre, bottom window.tgam.meta.headline_overlay_horizontal_position = "left"; // left, centre, right window.tgam.meta.headline_overlay_gradient = false; window.tgam.meta.two_column = true; window.tgam.meta.swap_column = true; window.tgam.meta.full_width = false; window.tgam.meta.dark_background = false; window.tgam.meta.dark_background_colour = ""; window.tgam.meta.centre_headline = false; window.tgam.meta.large_headline = false; window.tgam.meta.sans_headline = false; window.tgam.meta.label_text_colour = ""; window.tgam.meta.label_box_colour = ""; window.tgam.meta.label_text_colour_overlay = "" ; window.tgam.meta.label_box_colour_overlay = ""; window.tgam.meta.audio_bar = true; // custom header display overrides (optional): window.tgam.meta.display_head = "When life takes your melons, get melon aid"; window.tgam.meta.display_deck = "The Montreal Green Nutmeg was a huge, tasty and expensive breed of fruit, until the Depression spoiled public appetites for it. A new project hopes Québécois nostalgia can bring it back"; window.tgam.meta.label = "Agriculture"; window.tgam.meta.byline = "Eric Andrew-Gee"; window.tgam.meta.byline2 = "Photography by Selena Phillips-Boyle"; window.tgam.meta.creditline = "The Globe and Mail"; Diners at white-tablecloth restaurants in Gilded Age America might sit down for a glass of Champagne, a tin of caviar and, for dessert, a slice of Montreal melon.The Canadian delicacy was everywhere at the turn of the 20th century, coveted, researched, and lavishly paid for by gourmets on both sides of the Atlantic. It was “succulent,” and $30 a serving (inflation-adjusted).