Watermelons and cantaloupes may not be on your list of reason to visit the OBX, but they should be.  When you say the words “Rocky Hock” on the Outer Banks, almost everyone knows that you are talking “melons”!  Old timers living in Dare county won’t eat anything but a Rocky Hock while they’re coming off the vine.

What Makes a “Rocky Hock” Special?

The Outer Banks is surrounded by Farms and the traditional summer vacation at the Beach was inspired by those Farmers.  After planting their crops, many of the farm families in Northeastern NC would head to the Outer Banks to escape the sweltering heat and humidity inland (and the bugs).  They’d bring whatever was coming off back at the farm to feed themselves and to share with the locals. Fresh Outer Banks produce like sweet corn, snap beans, butter beans, squash, tomatoes and so on, but nothing was as refreshing as the cantaloupes and watermelons from Rocky Hock! Now you know what “Rocky Hock” means!

Rocky Hock, North Carolina is farming community in Chowan County, north of Edenton, down by Rocky Hock Creek, where they have “magic melon dirt” that makes for the sweetest melons in North Carolina –  And the same families are still growin’ them today the same way they’ve grown ‘em for generations.

Think About It…

  • High Water Table by the Creek;
  • Sandy Soil, so the melons’ roots reach way down deep;
  • The intensity of the candle power of the Sun at Rocky Hock;
  • Long sunny, hot days of inland farmland;
  • And it all goes to SWEET!
Willis Ray Byrum, a Rocky Hock Farmer is one of Nags Head Produce Partners.  He makes sure that we have a stream of Rocky Hocks as long as they’re pickin’ over in Rocky Hock.  Rocky Hocks are the real deal at Nags Head Produce.  You ought to get ya’self some!