ROCKY FORD, Colo. — With all of the rain eastern Colorado has gotten this summer, Scripps News Colorado Springs wanted to get a pulse check on the progress growing the state’s famous Rocky Ford melons.
“It takes a while to get to harvest, you know, three and a half months,” Michael Hirakata, a longtime melon farmer, said. “Hopefully we pick a lot the next few days.”
Hirakata said when he sees brown stems, he knows the melons are ready to be picked. Hirakata’s team uses a tracker, conveyor belt and other machines when picking the ripe melons.
“They’re picking the ripe cantaloupe, we pick everything ripe. So they’re picking it, putting it on that belt, and then the conveyor belt will take the cantaloupes into the trailer,” Hirakata said.
From there, the cantaloupes are cleaned, packaged and sent to stores…