DATE: Sunday, August 31, 1997               TAG: 9708310103

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: GUY FRIDDELL

                                            LENGTH:   56 lines

LOPE ON OVER TO THE MARKET WHILE FRESH MELONS LAST

To my astonishment, the watermelon is the runner-up, just behind the cantaloupe, on a nutrition scorecard.

In a rating system devised by the Center for Science for the Public Interest, a two-pound slice of watermelon amasses 74 points, only 25 points below the cantaloupe. Both happen to be fruits dear to my heart or, rather, stomach, during the summer.

Others scoring well in the field are strawberries, tangerines, grapefruits and pineapples. The plum is at the bottom, with only nine points.

A fig to plums! I say. But I'll eat and enjoy them wherever they materialize.

That watermelon rates so high on the scoreboard surprises me because, as is well known by anybody who eats one, the watermelon is, well, mostly water.

One day I'll delve further into this mystery of where the nutrition lies in the watermelon, but right now my attention is focused on plunging into one.

The scorecard also brings to mind that we are nearing the end of a season of feasting foreshortened by the drought, and we had best make the most of the next two or three weeks at nearby roadside stalls and markets.

How altruistic of me, you assume, trying to boost the sale of local produce. Altruism, my eye! Sheer self-interest impels me to beg you to turn out and buy from markets throughout Hampton Roads.

Farming is the riskiest endeavor in the world, much more so than the gaming tables in Las Vegas.

The slightest shift in the weather can wipe out crops. Therefore, it behooves us to eat with all our might of provender 'round about us.

Which is why, today, I shall drop by Stoney's Produce on First Colonial Road in Virginia Beach for Sugar Baby watermelons and the slightly larger seedless kind. It also offers peaches from the Eastern Shore.

I don't care how peaches rank on the nutrition board. They make a delectable breakfast or snack at bedtime.

I'll swing by Williams Farm on Newtown Road for sweet Harper hybrid cantaloupes and finish at the the City Farm Market in Norfolk with a sack of butterbeans. Midweek I'll set out for the Virginia Beach Farmer's Market and a foray into Pungo Blueberries.

Here on in, I'll be checking each morning the list of Good Things to Eat in The Pilot's classified ads. One day soon I'll captain an expedition to Martin's Farm on Knotts Island to pick Gala apples.

Rachel Carson alerted us in her book ``Silent Spring'' to a day we would waken to find that no birds sing, their having been done in by uncurbed use of pesticides.

Similarly, I dread the prospect of freakish weather and a lack of consumers leaving us bereft of the bounty of fruits and vegetables.

There is a tendency among humankind to assume that the end of August concludes the growing season. Nonsense! Okra is just arriving now, and while that may not enthrall many, it typifies the surprises to be found in local markets well into autumn. Sometimes, in a season of calm weather, we can enjoy fresh tomatoes in November.

To awaken and find no farms would be a nightmare.

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