Across the country, Volga watermelons are famous for being juicy and sweet. But they’re not just delicious; they also have some surprising properties.
A locksmith from Volgograd, nicknamed Khorunzhiy—playfully referred to as the “watermelon guy” by his friends—once invited a buddy over:
— Come over and have some watermelon!
— Are you kidding? It’s a snowstorm outside, and you want to eat watermelon…
— Suit yourself. If you don’t come, we’ll manage without you.
And sure enough, Khorunzhiy placed a large striped watermelon on the table, with “August 1955” scratched into its side. That watermelon was delicious and juicy, as if it had just been picked from the garden. Soon, they devoured a second one just like it.
The third watermelon was cut open only three years later. And guess what? The flesh of this “veteran” was perfectly edible, and the seeds were still intact. That day, the son of the Dagestani Musaev was the most excited. He had never seen a watermelon weighing a whopping 26 pounds. Not a watermelon, but a barrel!
But once lunch was over, the boy took a knife and plunged it into the giant’s green skin. The knife seemed to sink into emptiness. As he sliced the watermelon in half, the boy gasped: the entire interior had turned into a dry lump. Surrounding it, like a thin snake, was a watermelon vine nearly three feet long, with three leaves at the end.
Both the vine and the leaves were completely white; sunlight had never penetrated the inside of the watermelon.