Wine, especially French wine, is tied to the idea of terroir, that the climate and soil where grapes are grown has an indelible influence on the final product. People care a lot, then, about whether their wine is from the Loire or Napa Valley. But not too many people care about where their melon comes from—unless they’re a fan of the Crane melon, a hyper-local fruit developed and grown by a single family in Santa Rosa, California. True, the seeds have made their way to other fields, but the Cranes…
