what can i do with melons?

[miss djax]

hey now this is a safe for work thread ;)

it's summer in az, and the farmers market is overflowing with melons..i have bought way too many and i hate the thought of throwing them away.

what can i do to preserver melons? can you make melon jam or jelly? anyone have a recipe? or a thought?

[Valheru]

If life gives you melons, MAKE MELONADE! :D

Melon jam is beautiful, my gran makes it.

[Faerie]

I got a recipe for jam, but I can only post on Monday...:(

[Ray Moscow]

I've always just eaten them fresh. Usually they stay good for months.

[His Noodly Appendage]

What kind of melons?

[Ray Moscow]

Speaking of which, our melon plants are flowering, and so we might actually get some melons out of the garden this year.

[miss djax]

lets see, i have a couple of french charontais, and gaillela's....yummers..

i'd love a melon jam recipe!!!! i could prolly wait til monday ;)

[Anne]

you can freeze them, either as slices or as pulp, and then add to yogurt later... or cook with chicken?

Make icecream...

dehydrate?

wrap procuito around?

[miss djax]

dehydrated melon sounds interesting!!! is there a way to do that without a dehydrator??

[Anne]

what's you oven like? uh....

yes, and a dehydrator is worth it...

[His Noodly Appendage]

*googles*

Ah. We call those rockmelon and honeydew, respectively.

[nygreenguy]

bounce them in my face.

[Anne]

you want a bruised face?

[Octavia]

Does anyone else make a hole in the side and tip in vodka until no more vodka will tip?

It's really nice in hot weather.

[Anne]

Noooo... just you Octavia.... ;)

[His Noodly Appendage]

I'm mildly allergic/intolerant to green melons and kiwi fruit. I like them, but they make my mouth sore as hell, like really unsweet pineapple only much more so.

Luckily, there's rockmelon and gold kiwis. Gold kiwis > *

[miss djax]

gold kiwi's? do tell!!

[hecaterin]

Gold kiwis are excellent, a bit sweeter than the greens.

Octavia, I've never tried the vodka thing but Jamie Oliver recommends it for watermelon. Does it work with rockmelon too?

[His Noodly Appendage]

http://www.zesprikiwi.com/images/hires/zespri4.jpg

[BigEvil]

The vodka/watermelon thing was a nice novelty during my teenage years and early 20's, but it seems like a waste of vodka now. (Still make vodka/jello shots at least once a year though.)

For me, I would just make the melon's a course in every meal. Maybe look online for some recipe's. I wonder how well melonade would come out? Could be a nice novelty. Melon Jam would be worth trying if you could find a recipe.

[hecaterin]

Melon & lemon, and melon & ginger are traditional, now rather old-fashioned jams.

[Puck]

I make bite sized scoops of melon and put in the fridge until cold, and eat them as a meal, or a side dish. Pork chops on the grill, with melons on the side make a great meal in summer. Or, just serve them in bed on a Sunday morning. Nothing finer than to sit up in bed all lazy like, and munch on fresh cold melon/fruit while you read the paper/chat. Then make love for dessert. ;)

[Christina]

I freeze all of our extra fruit. I cut them in slices (unless they're berries), spread them on a cookie sheet covered in plastic wrap until they're just frozen and then bag them up well to prevent freezer burn. Then I use it all winter.

[muidiri]

If all else fails, consider blowing them up. Melons make excellent targets - very satisfying to "kill", and no need to clean up afterwards. The critters appreciate the free snack.

[Octavia]

Gold kiwis are excellent, a bit sweeter than the greens.

Octavia, I've never tried the vodka thing but Jamie Oliver recommends it for watermelon. Does it work with rockmelon too?

Don't know, haven't tried it - I'm not a big fan of rock melon. It always tastes a bit rotten to me - like mangoes or ripe bananas.

[His Noodly Appendage]

An awful lot of rockmelons are like that. Good ones are rare.

[Free in Freeport]

Going off topic here, this thread got me thinking -

A chain of Fresh Market stores has recently opened in my area. Their produce section is impressive. I'm making it a point to buy something previously untried with every trip. Today I tried bitter melon, looks a cross between a stegosaurus and a cucumber. It lives up to its name. I just tried a slice raw. Blech. Will try stir-frying tomorrow, which is supposed to neutralize the bitterness.

[Jobar]

You might try squeezing the juice out and using it to make wine. Then make preserves or jam out of the solids- or dehydrate it, that sounds like it would be good.

I don't have recipes for any of this, and it would take a mighty big press, but if you have a lot of melons available, it might be worth it.