"Qishuim" Chate Melon Grex

Cucumis melo var. chate Origin: Eastern Mediterranean & Italy (via US) Improvement status: Breeding population Seeds per packet: ~25 Germination tested 10/2025: 95% Life cycle: Annual The Jewish Seed Project (of which EFN co-founder Nate Kleinman is one member) is a collaborative of Jewish growers, organizers, storytellers, and researchers operating through the Jewish Farmer Network. The goal of the project is to build relationships among ourselves and with culturally relevant seeds. Given our overlapping histories of exile, diaspora, landlessness, and assimilation, our central guiding question is "What is a Jewish seed?" When we began our exploration of this question, we decided to focus initially on a single plant, described frequently in both the Torah (the Hebrew Bible) and the Talmud (the primary source of Jewish law and theology, other than the bible): the chate melon, known in ancient Hebrew as "qishut" (singular) or "qishuim" (plural).During their exodus from Egypt, the Je