Malabar Melon Pickles Really Delicious
Here are some seeds of the Malabar melon,” volunteered a garden club friend, and continued, “they make delicious melon preserves - better than watermelon rind.”
We planted the seeds near a trellis and the vines climbed mightily, even into a nearby evergreen. The yellow blossoms, among the fig-shaped leaves, gave way to a green oblately spherical fruit about 12 inches long with white stripes, white flesh and black seeds. These we harvested before frost and stored for several weeks until we found time to preserve them - probably about the middle of October.
From Colonel G White, whose family hails from Virginia, we got the recipe for melon rind preserves:
Cut the rind in fancy pieces with pen knife; place in salt water 24 hours, then remove and soak in fresh water 12 hours; line kettle with grapevine leaves and disperse through the rind small pieces of alum, size of a grain of corn to each pound of rind; fill kettle with alternate rows of rinds and leaves, placing a thick layer of leaves on top as a covering to retain the steam; cover with plate to press down leaves; add sufficient water to cover the whole and let simmer two hours or more, until the rind is a pretty green in color; remove and place in strong ginger (white) tea; simmer one hour; remove and let cool; make a thin syrup, allowing one pound granulated sugar to each pound rind, seasoning with several pieces of mace and whole ginger; place the rind in this syrup, anti boil slowly until fruit looks clear; remove in earthen bowl; boil syrup until thick, pour over cold fruit; let cool and it will be ready to put away in jars. Slices of lemon may be added.
Our friend was right. The preserves were delicious, pronounced ambrosial by family and friends who shared them with us. The supply lasted through the year when we again planted Malabar seeds and again harvested the fruit. Something I can’t recall must have put off again and again making them into preserves, for under the date of February 5, 2004 I find the entry: “Finished making Malabar melon preserves! Must not be so late again although quality of meat still seems good.” Obliging fruit to wait so long for a delinquent housewife!
In the Spring of ‘07 we ordered seed from an eastern firm, but it didn’t come up, and the next year we sent in an order to the same firm, gently upbraiding them for the non-viability of the seed. Along in July we got a polite, “Sorry, we have no Malabar melon seed,” reply from them.
A howl went up from the younger members of the household, and I felt like an inadequate provider. Failure cast a faint shadow over my gardening enthusiasm. Dog-house blues, it must have been, until not long afterward I noticed a little vine starting up at the foot of the old trellis planted near the wireless outdoor speakers in the garden. Could it be? It was - believe it or not - a Malabar! How it got there none of us knew, unless from a seed planted too deep four years before. One poor puny, anemic, undersized melon was the only yield, but we brought it into the house and stored it in a dry warm place, hoping, just hoping, that the precious black seeds might be viable.
In April we planted some of the doubtful looking seeds in pots in a sunny window. At the end of four weeks no signs of life, so we threw out the contents of the pots into a flower bed.
Our daughter - who likes Malabar preserves - rescued about a dozen of the discarded seeds and again planted them in four little pots. Then her reward: four scrawny little plants appeared, one in each pot. Late in May we put them out well-coddled about with straw. They took hold at once, thrived and in September we harvested 24 melons from the four vines. This Spring there were seeds to share and to spare!