• melon ideas?

    From songbird@21:1/5 to All on Fri Aug 28 07:09:54 2020
    anyone done spreads or jams for melons to
    deal with the extra harvest and for preserving?

    how about juicing?

    looks like we may have a lot extra and just
    in case i have the time and energy to do it
    it would be fun to experiment.

    i do like sweet and sour things and some
    spices and heat are ok too. my favorite
    peach jam so far was one made with a little
    vinegar, some green curry and some red pepper
    flakes. i may try a variation of that with
    the melon. also possibly adding some onion
    to make a relish/spread.

    any other ideas? thanks! :)


    songbird

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  • From bob prohaska@21:1/5 to songbird on Sat Aug 29 05:17:04 2020
    songbird <songbird@anthive.com> wrote:
    anyone done spreads or jams for melons to
    deal with the extra harvest and for preserving?

    how about juicing?


    If you try juicing and end up with too much to store
    freeze concentrating works to a degree.

    Not so good as fresh, but better than nothing in February....

    HTH,

    bob prohaska

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  • From songbird@21:1/5 to bob prohaska on Sat Aug 29 06:28:43 2020
    bob prohaska wrote:
    songbird <songbird@anthive.com> wrote:
    anyone done spreads or jams for melons to
    deal with the extra harvest and for preserving?

    how about juicing?

    If you try juicing and end up with too much to store
    freeze concentrating works to a degree.

    Not so good as fresh, but better than nothing in February....

    i don't have much room in the freezer so i'm
    not sure how well i can manage something like
    that.

    i have some spices/hot green curry paste, etc. i'd
    like to use up so i may try various batches of that
    kind of preserve. i really liked some peach jam i
    made years ago that had the blend of sweet and sour
    and hot green curry in it so this may work out well.
    i'll also check the recipes on the web too when it
    comes down to it if needed.

    i did manage to give away 11 melons yesterday
    so it may work out fine that people will want them
    and i won't have to do anything extra with these. i
    sure won't plant as many vines next year as we don't
    need this many melons, but i didn't know how productive
    these vines were and i ended up replanting some seeds
    after the first planting didn't take in two spots and
    i only had four seeds left and all four of theose
    sprouted and survived so it was hard for me to thin
    those back as i only had those few seeds to start with
    - i now have several thousand seeds... :)

    right now the freezer has a large number of pint jars
    from the strawberry freezer jam and frozen strawberries
    for shortcakes this winter.

    i tried various amounts of sugar and marked all the
    jars to see which concentration we like the best. can
    hardly wait to start the taste testing. :)

    thanks! :)


    songbird

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  • From bob prohaska@21:1/5 to songbird on Sat Aug 29 15:00:40 2020
    songbird <songbird@anthive.com> wrote:
    bob prohaska wrote:
    songbird <songbird@anthive.com> wrote:
    anyone done spreads or jams for melons to
    deal with the extra harvest and for preserving?

    how about juicing?

    If you try juicing and end up with too much to store
    freeze concentrating works to a degree.

    Not so good as fresh, but better than nothing in February....

    i don't have much room in the freezer so i'm
    not sure how well i can manage something like
    that.


    Same problem here from time to time.

    Another, slightly more obscure idea:

    https://natashaskitchen.com/how-to-make-plum-fruit-leather/

    I've sampled the version made with Persian sour plums and it's
    surprisingly good, a bit like chewy fruit candy. Since melon pulp
    is soft one might be able to omit the cooking step for better
    nutrient retention.

    If you do try it please post how it works out!

    bob prohaska

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