The Watermelon Heresy
A local clergyman denounces the region's favorite crop as the 'forbidden fruit,' drawing the ire of the town's fruit-loving newspaper.
A warm-hearted minister named Parish has recently given the great Yakima country a slap direct in the face by maintaining in his sermons that the watermelon was the forbidden fruit. If the Reverend Parish could throw his lips over the juicy and fragrant heart of one of our sixty or seventy-pound melons, he would become convinced that God in His kindness and wisdom never intended to keep such delicious fruit from His children.
“God in His kindness and wisdom never intended to keep such delicious fruit from His children.”
Yakima's agricultural identity has long been central to its civic pride. This lighthearted skirmish between a minister and the local paper over watermelon highlights how local produce has always been a point of sacred community identity.
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