A cornucopia of watermelons awaits just outside Fresno. Nine varieties and counting
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- Opened 18 years ago on McCall Avenue south of Ashlan Avenue in east Fresno County.
- The Allen family more than doubled stand sales over the last three years.
- They grow and sell nine watermelon varieties to local stores and Berkeley Bowl.
This roadside stand in east Fresno County may not look like much, but that didn’t stop more than 200 people from cuing up for the opening of Dicky Don Watermelons.
This humble fruit stand on McCall Avenue south of Ashlan Avenue, tucked among citrus trees, has developed a huge following thanks to social media, word of mouth and the desire to buy local produce.
Operated by the Allen family, the fruit stand has more than doubled its sales over the last three years, said Jesse Allen, who manages the stand and its social media.
Allen has leaned heavily on Instagram, Facebook and the Nextdoor app to help spread the word and the family’s prized melons. She keeps followers updated on the latest varieties available.
Customers also share their own photos of themselves lugging home a cart packed with 20-pound watermelons.
On opening day June 6, customers began lining up at 6:45 a.m., said farmer Robert Allen, Jesse Allen’s father and son of Richard “Dicky” Allen.
“We have never seen anything like that before,” Robert Allen said. “We had some people come out and say that they just wanted to be a part of this, and go through this whole process. We also got a lot of people who said this was their first time out here. We even had Dicky Don himself, showing people the different watermelons we have.”
A big part of the attraction of Dicky Don Watermelons is the variety of watermelons it grows. The farm produces nine kinds, with varying flesh colors and textures.
The top seller is the most traditional, the Cracker Jack. The fruit has a crisp texture with sweet flesh. A close second is the Black Jack, which has a dark rind and sweet flesh.
Other popular varieties are the Yellow Jacket, which has a very juicy yellow flesh, and the Orange Crush, also juicy but with a milder tasting flesh.
Part of the fun of growing watermelons, Robert Allen said, is experimenting with new varieties. He currently has a red-flesh melon with a dark green rind marked by yellow specks. It’s called the Starship.
“It looks like someone threw yellow paint on it,” Robert Allen said.
Jesse Allen said the staff at the stand, mostly family members, will help customers zero in on the type of watermelon they may like, or guide them if they want to try something different.
Richard Allen, 85, said he is amazed at the success of the fruit stand. “This is way beyond what we were doing,” he said. “The kids ran the fruit stand since they were little, you know, 15 years ago, 20 years ago, when we started. And if they had probably 20 cars stop on a Sunday morning, they’d be pretty happy.”
On a recent morning, Richard Allen was inside the farm’s packing shed reviewing a shipment of watermelons headed to grocery store customers.
The Allens sell their watermelons to several grocery stores, including R-N Market, The Market in northwest Fresno, and Town & Market in Porterville. They also sell in the Bay Area to the Berkeley Bowl.
Richard Allen is no stranger to the grocery store business. He owned and operated two of them in Fresno, called Country Cousin Market, and was a partner in Varsity Liquors.
Allen got into farming in the 1970s, starting with almonds, then citrus, cherries and eventually watermelons.
By the 1990s, he sold his businesses to focus on farming with his son Robert. The Allens grew their almond holdings and added a custom harvesting operation.
Robert Allen said his father remains active on the farm, helping out wherever he can. The elder Allen jokes that he has been thinking about retirement.
“I’m going to give myself a few more years,” he said, “and retire at 90.”
