Rosy Melon Rind Pickles

Here are the finished pickles.  The flavor is good, but I don't think I will use this particular recipe again.  The pickles, while they held their shape, are not crisp.  I didn't really expect them to be extrememly crisp, but I think I will go for one of the recipes that called for a lime soak instead.  I think I may have answered my own question about whether the Citron melons and watermelons are interchangeable in a recipe calling for one or the other.  I couldn't say for sure without a side by side comparison, but I'm guessing not.  I used citron melon rinds in a recipe calling for watermelon rinds.  The recipe called for 4 to 5 quarts of cubed watermelon rinds (approximately 4 pounds).  This would result in 5 pints of pickles.  I ended up with over 8 pints...  I only canned 8 and the rest went into the fridge.  So I think that it may have something to do with the amount of water in watermelon rinds versus the citron melon rinds that would account for way less shrinkage from the brine soak. 

Citron Melon

One of the heirloom melons planted in our garden this year is the citron melon.  I don't believe I have ever experienced the citron melon before.  I think all of the watermelon pickles that Grandma made were from regular watermelons.    I was surprized to find that these melons are as tough as nails!  Cutting into them, even with freshly sharpened knives was like trying to cut into an old field pumpkin.  Even the flesh is tough!  It took me two hours to cut up enough rind to make five quarts of one inch cubes.  I may try an electric carving knife for the next batch. Some of the recipes specific to citron melons mentioned that the flesh can be seeded and made into preserves also.  I may not bother with that, as our yield was over fifty melons.  I have already given some away and still have some on the vine that may go into the compost pile. 

I plan to make several batches of pickles or preserves, so we can do a comparison to see what we like best.  The recipe I am using for this first batch is called Rosy Watermelon Pickles.  I was looking for something different.  This one called for maraschino cherries for the color, and in addition to cloves, cinnamon and ginger root, also black pepper!   Sounds good to me.  The book is 'Farm Journal's Freezing and Canning Cookbook', 1978 edition.

Something I found in this book that I have found no where else is that it is better to use melons grown earlier in the season and not overripe in making preserves and pickles.  If these that I have are overripe, I would not know it considering how tough they are, but they are certainly not 'early'.

I was wondering if the recipes for watermelon rind pickles or preserves and citron melon preserves are interchangeable.  Still don't have an answer, but thought I would give it a shot and see what happens.  It seems that the recipes for citron melons that I have noticed, don't call for a brine.  I am wondering if this has something to do with the water content in citron versus a much jucier watermelon.  I went ahead and soaked them in a brine anyway, following the recipe.

While doing some searching around on the internet for recipes I came across this website WatermelonRind.com .  I may try some of the ideas found on the site.  There apparently are other ways to enjoy the rinds besides pickles and preserves!

Tomatoes and Peppers sowed today

I have a dream to one day be a very good vegetable gardener (Smile).  I am learning something every year, I suppose.  Doing better about keeping some notes.  I'm slowly getting some permanent beds established.  One day I will have enough permanent garden space to have room for everything I want to grow and also to be able to rotate the crops properly.

The big step this year was finally getting that hoophouse covered.  I wish I had had it done last fall, so that I could have overwintered some things, but better late than never!  We have it in now, and have even managed to start some things early to be transplanted later.

I don't pretend to have it all figured out, but this is what I managed to get seeded so far:  Back on April 21st, I seeded some Okra, six different kinds of melon, five different cucumbers, and some old sage seeds.

Today, two and half weeks later, I have finally seeded about thirteen or fourteen different kinds of tomatoes.  Mostly heirloom, but a few hybrids.  Ten different varieties of peppers; some hot and some sweet...again mostly heirloom, a couple of hybrid varieties.

I have saved these all in an Excel file.  (Trying to do better with keeping notes)! 

Some Seeds Started Today

Before I get too far behind the curve, I went ahead and started some seeds in a protected seed bed to be transplanted later. This is just a few things to get me started and I will add more when the new garden bed is ready. I have a BUNCH of beans and I am thinking about a whole new place for those. Most are hybrids, but one is an heirloom kidney bean. I will not plant all of them, but hold some for next year and maybe try to save some seed then-- when I learn more about preventing cross-pollination. I especially wonder about the surrounding soybean fields...lots of questions! Also one thing I did not realize, but read recently is that most or all of the bush beans are harvested at once like determinate tomatoes!? Unlike the pole beans that I have always grown and are harvested over a longer period of time. This is actually fine that I have chosen several types of bush beans this year as most of them will be for freezing and canning. I will plant those over several weeks to try and space out my canning work and also I will go ahead and plant some of the Kentucky Wonder pole beans that I still have on hand for fresh eating. All of my tomatoes are heirlooms and indeterminate, except for one that is a hybrid.

This is what went into the seed bed today:

Cilantro
Florence Fennel
Basil; Cinnamon and Swift
Sage
Italian Parsley
Muskmelon; Hale’s Best
Hot Pepper; ‘tabasco’ and ‘Santaka’
Acorn Squash; Table Queen and Table Ace
Sweet Pepper; ‘Sweet Havana’ and a color mix of bell peppers
Zucchini; ‘Black Beauty’
Summer Squash; Yellow Crooked Neck
Okra; Clemson Spineless
Tomatillo; ‘Salsa’ and an unnamed variety (I think these are the same)
Beans; ‘Fejol Huerto’
Tomato; heirloom rainbow blend
Cucumber; ‘Sweeter Yet’ and ‘Cool Breeze’
Milk Thistle
Summer Squash; ‘Cashflow’ and Medley Blend