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Post by deckman22 on Sept 20, 2019 21:26:20 GMT -5
I was going to pull my last Allsweet watermelon vine after picking the only melon off that vine a couple of days before. Then I noticed another melon had started. There had been plenty of female flowers earlier but, none took. A couple of days later I notice more melons growing, a total of 5 more melons tho the chickens got to the one growing along the fence. I hope they will be ripe by the end of the month which is kind of odd for around here as watermelon season is normally in June.
Those deer do love watermelon Tom, I've seen does get in boxing matches over the rinds I put out for them. Chickens go crazy over them too.
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Vokar
Blooming
Posts: 183
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Post by Vokar on Sept 24, 2019 4:24:58 GMT -5
I finally tasted Santo Domingo Brown Seeded (a 14lb fruit). It's the latest of the three Santo Domingo types, but it was the best-tasting, in my opinion (and one of my top three favorites for flavor). Similar in flavor to my best-tasting Ledmon and Tom Watson. All three Santo Domingo watermelons taste and look quite different, but they're all very good, and all seem to do decently in our soil.
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Post by heirloomfan on Sept 30, 2019 12:10:30 GMT -5
 This was a test watermelon. My 6 yr old granddaughter spotted the seed at a local garden center and asked we plant it. It did surprisingly well. We got one melon, probably could have gotten a few more but I made the mistake of moving the container it was in out of the direct hot sun and possibly hail damage. It was very juicy and the had the taste of tropical fruit. Probably will grow it again next year. I am in the Denver area so about 5200 ft, sometimes watermelons or cantalopes don't get enough of the sustained heat during the season but this one did very well. |
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Vokar
Blooming
Posts: 183
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Post by Vokar on Oct 1, 2019 15:46:48 GMT -5
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Vokar
Blooming
Posts: 183
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Post by Vokar on Oct 1, 2019 16:03:37 GMT -5
I harvested our end-of-season watermelons, yesterday. I got 42 small watermelons in the backyard (the biggest watermelons were harvested previous to yesterday). They all seemed to be ripe, except maybe one of them. My one descended from Weeks Nc Giant and Moon and Stars (among at least one other) was even ripe (it set fruit late, and historically Moon and Stars types have had difficulty ripening in my garden for some unknown reason); yes, it was small, too (although its cousin in a different spot without stars was larger).
In the front yard, we have a volunteer Red-seeded Citron watermelon (it's parent plant was grown in 2015). The parent plant had gotten maybe 17 fruits or so (which I thought was extremely prolific). This volunteer, this year, got 28 (in tougher soil, without any soil amendments)! We need to figure out what to do with them (fortunately, they can keep for at least a year, sometimes). They're about as hard as rocks. Red-seeded Citron doesn't get sweet like regular watermelons. I'm thinking about pickling it, but I want a good savory recipe. I love dill pickles (and am not a big fan of sweet pickles). Maybe I can candy it or something. Preserves would need all the flavor added, pretty much.
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Post by tom 🕊 on Oct 1, 2019 16:40:30 GMT -5
We need to figure out what to do with them Citron preserves seems to be the main thing. Many internet recipes. |
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Post by desertwoman on Oct 1, 2019 19:54:21 GMT -5
We need to figure out what to do with them I pureed a bunch of watermelons all summer (still doing it) and froze it in pint containers. It freezes well as a puree, with tons of flavor. |
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Post by tom 🕊 on Oct 1, 2019 21:14:04 GMT -5
There used to be an inedible wild citron on the farm. It had an oily smell like engine oil. They were a nuisance. Striking one with a tractor tire was like hitting a large rock. I proposed to my father that if he would drive a tractor and trailer through the fields, I would walk behind and pick up all the citrons, so that we would eventually be rid of them. He wasn't interested, so it didn't happen.
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Vokar
Blooming
Posts: 183
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Post by Vokar on Oct 1, 2019 23:32:27 GMT -5
desertwoman, Hmm. Citron watermelon puree. It might be good, if I didn't have to cook it first to make it soft enough to blend, particularly if I added some orange/lemon zest or something. We would probably need more than a regular blender to blend them raw, though. The flesh is more cohesive than any other vegetable I know. I mean, it doesn't break apart nearly as easily as a carrot, but it's almost as hard as one, but not crunchy like a carrot. They're about as sweet as cucumbers, and actually taste a bit like them, too, but the fresh taste is otherwise difficult to describe. When ripe ones are baked, they taste like squash with the texture of baked apples. They'd probably make great mock apple crisp now that I think about that fact. The tough part is removing the seeds, though. There were lots of them in 2015. They're big nail-polish-red seeds; they look really cool (they lose some of their color and sheen after doing everything that needs to be done to save seeds, though. I actually enjoy eating the flesh raw (if the fruit is ripe), but one fruit is enough to feed a person for a long time that way. I like to use them as a water chestnut replacement in stir fry. It doesn't take much flesh to supply a stir fry, though.
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Vokar
Blooming
Posts: 183
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Post by Vokar on Oct 1, 2019 23:42:34 GMT -5
Last year I had some volunteer Red-seeded Citron watermelons, too. I think they were crossed with regular watermelons, though, as the plants weren't very vigorous or prolific, the fruits ripened quickly in storage, they were susceptible to spider mites, and they were easy to eat in a single sitting (still not sweet or red, however). The flesh was much softer (kind of foamy, actually). They tasted different, but were good. The seeds were still red, but not as red as before. I saved seeds from those (and plenty from 2015). I'll probably svae plenty this year, too.
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Vokar
Blooming
Posts: 183
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Post by Vokar on Oct 2, 2019 18:20:00 GMT -5
Here are most of our regular watermelons, as well as some Kirkman melons (and/or Kirkman crosses) and a Torpeda melon. Is anyone else's house full like this at harvest time? Usually we have tomatoes all over the place, too, but we've just harvested the ripe ones, this year (there's still time to harvest more, though, since it actually didn't get as cold as predicted, last night!) There are also unpictured squash around the house! A few of those peppers are from our neighbor, and the bananas are of course from the store. The melon I'm holding was a Kirkman melon probably crossed with Torpeda, by the taste/texture of it, and the netting.            |
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Post by heirloomfan on Nov 11, 2019 16:03:14 GMT -5
Pen I just saw your question about the watermelon I grew. It is called Mountain Sweet Yellow and I got the seeds from Botanical Interests. Once the weather warmed up they really starting taking off. I had moved them to a location in the garden where I thought they might have some protection in case it hailed and the pumpkin vines kind of took over the area, but next year I will plant them where they can get their own space and sun and I think they might produce even more. A very nice mild sweet melon.
On your Red Citron, are these mostly for preserving such as making watermelon pickles or are they also good for eating?
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Vokar
Blooming
Posts: 183
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Post by Vokar on Nov 11, 2019 16:45:24 GMT -5
heirloomfan, Thanks! Well, you can eat them fresh/raw, and I think it's decent that way, but they're nothing like other watermelon, and you would probably have trouble finishing a whole fruit in one sitting, let alone four sittings (much as someone might have trouble eating a raw cabbage that size). I tried watermelon crisp a couple times, and it worked very well! Just add the right mixture of brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and citric acid, and it tastes like apple crisp, but I think it feels healthier. You have to cook it longer, though, unless you like really firm fruit. If you cook it too long, it starts to taste kind of like squash, though. It would be great for pie. I cooked it for 35 to 40 minutes on 400° F. Refrigerating it can reduce or eliminate the squashy taste, if you cook it too long. One full-sized melon is enough for about two full-sized watermelon crisps. It also tastes good raw with brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and citric acid. So, if you want to eat it raw, I'd recommend it that way, or with some other flavorings. Most people probably make preserves with them. I think they have a lot of undiscovered uses, personally. I like them in stir fry! binnylou SpringRain, desertwoman, Regarding blood pressure, I don't know if Citron watermelons have the same effect on blood pressure, but I was thinking, they keep in storage for a super long time (probably over a year). So, if you grew some you'd probably have fruit all year long (and lots of it), without the need to puree it. They're high in pectin and can be used to thicken things, too. Pectin is supposed to have some cool properties (e.g. chelating heavy metals).
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Vokar
Blooming
Posts: 183
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Post by Vokar on Nov 11, 2019 16:54:23 GMT -5
I wanted to point out that Navajo Red tasted excellent this year, with black plastic and drought. In 2017, without black plastic but with drought, it tasted bland. It's a much stronger diuretic than most watermelons, I think. The seeds this year were quite possibly crossed, since I grew I think about 70 kinds of watermelon in 2017 (and I used seeds I saved then this year). However, the ones I'm talking about looked the same. There was an obvious cross, though, but it didn't taste like the others. No, I didn't use lots of land to grow that many. They were pretty close together, and the plants didn't grow terribly large. This year, we didn't get a lot of spider mites! |
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