Cucumis melo subsp. flexuosus
Origin: Iraq
Improvement status: Landrace
Seeds per packet: ~15
Germination: 99% (January 2025)
Life cycle: Annual
Thanks to our friends in the Iraqi Seed Collective — and our awesome growers Corrie and Jose Spellman-Lopez in Vineland, NJ — we're thrilled to be offering this exciting Iraqi snake melon. Like other "Armenian Cucumber"-style melons (botanically the same species as a cantaloupe or honeydew), ta'roozi is generally treated like a cucumber — but the people who know and love it say it makes even better pickles than true cucumbers, never losing its crunch!
We had trouble finding any information in English online about ta'roozi, which is also called "atroozi" in certain places in Iraq and may sometimes be called "fakoos" (though this type is quite different from the Palestinian "fakous" we also offer). Apparently the word ta'roozi (تعروزي) traces its roots back to ancient Babylon, so it consequently sounds funny to non-Iraqi speakers of Arabic (and is unfamiliar to some Iraqis as well). But it's a popular and beloved food that's often found in Iraqi markets stuffed and pickled, or served fresh dipped in sumac.
We're so grateful to be collaborating with the Iraqi Seed Collective on this and other growing projects. We will donate 25% of the proceeds of this seed to the Iraqi Seed Collective to support their important work preserving Iraqi and other Southwest Asian seeds.
GROWING TIPS: Plant as you would other melons or cucumbers, either starting indoors a couple weeks before last frost (to get the earliest crop possible), or direct sowing after frost danger has passed and soil has warmed up a bit. The plants are vigorous and productive, and can climb a trellis or sprawl around on the ground. It seems quite resilient, so far not suffering from fungal disease issues in our experience, and is pretty drought tolerant too.
NOTE: The photo showing a pile of fruits is of generic "Armenian Cucumbers" at a farmers market in California, from user _e.t and used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. Others show genuine ta'roozis.
