In September I pickled. Cucumbers and watermelon.

Watermelon rind made up two different recipes, one from Putting Food By, 4th edition revised, page 310; the other from Small Batch Preserving page 159. Both appreciated.

First start with a watermelon, actually we used two.



Halve, then quarter, then eight, then slice the eights into 3 pieces each. This gives you something the size above. Then remove the meat, as we are pickling the rind. Today's watermelon has no rind, so these pickles are thin. These pieces are a good size to then remove the skin from.



And cut into bite sized pieces.



Two different views of the process. I don't know what to do with the meat. There are frozen deserts that will use it, I tried jelly but with no sucess at all.



I'm not certain if that is used in the watermelon or with the bushel of cukes. You can just see the box in the lower right corner. A bushel of cucumbers is not quite 50 pounds.


Then the pieces are cooked, you want to retain some crispness through the hot water bath process, but if they arent precooked the will be too crisp. Two pots, two recipes.



Cloves, cinamon sticks and sliced lime for one of the batches.



The actual liquor one batch will be processed in. This is what fills the jar of watermelon rind pieces.



Just before lids, rings and 10 minutes in the bath.



Peter, for whom the pickles were made and one variant is named Rocky Watermelon Pickles for.

Next up: Traditional Dill Pickles from Ruhlman's and Polcyn's Charcuterie with instructions on how to can them.

Remember I've got 46 pounds of cucumbers to do something with, besides 10 pounds devoted to the above Traditional Dills, there will be Short Brine, Dill Sandwich Slices, Sweet Garlic, Curry Pickle Slices, Sweet and Traditional Garlic Dill. Some of these will be put up in a double batch with two different shapes, spears, slices and sandwich slices being the shape variations. Do come back for more.

The Pickle Prince of Pomona (which is how my wife insists on labeling my pickles.