Cinnamon Pickled Watermelon Rind

As many of you saw in my last post, our watermelons are starting to ripen and we have a great influx of fruit to eat all of the sudden.  After we cut up the first one, my husband looked at the huge pile of rind left over and said, "What do you want me to do with all of this?"  I remembered having seen recipes for pickled watermelon rind so I said, "Throw it in the fridge.  I'll see what I can do with it."  That led me to the adventure of the last two days...

I looked in my cookbooks, on Pinterest, on various websites, and I finally settled on a recipe to try for Cinnamon Pickled Watermelon Rind.  Here's the one I decided on:

http://livingfromscratch1.blogspot.com/2011/07/preserving-cinnamon-watermelon-rind.html?m=1

On the first day...

1. Cut off any remaining pink fruit from the rind.

2. Use a potato peeler to remove the hard outer skin from the rind.

3. Cut the rind up into about 1" chunks.  My one watermelon from the garden yielded about 17 cups of rind, a little more than the recipe called for but I just threw it all in.

4. At this point, I had three bowls.  The extra watermelon (fruit) I gave to the chickens.  The rind I tried to grind up for the birds but it was too mealy so I threw it in the compost.  Lastly, you'll have your prepared chunks of rind, which need to go in a big bowl or pan.

5. Cover the chunks of rind in cold water and add 1 cup of salt.  Cover and put it in the fridge to soak overnight.

On the second day...

6. Dump the chunks in a colander and rinse them off.  Put them back into the pot and cover with cold water again.  Bring them to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for about ten minutes.  The recipe says they should be fork soft at this point, like a potato before you mash it.  When finished, dump them back into the colander and use your pot to prepare the brine.

 7. In making the brine, I strayed a little from the recipe.  More sugar than vinegar seemed extreme to me so I made mine with equal parts: 5 cups sugar, 5 cups vinegar.  (I always like to have a little extra liquid so I don't run short trying to fill my jars.)  Also add 4 cinnamon sticks.  Bring it to a boil and then simmer five minutes, mixing to dissolve the sugar.

8. Add the watermelon rind back into the pot and cook on low until the pieces look translucent.  The recipe says an hour but mine were done in about 45 minutes.

9. Pack the sterilized jars with rind and pour brine over to fill, leaving your 1/2" headspace.  Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes and then finally, after two days, you are done!

My 12 pound watermelon from the garden made five pint jars of pickles.  Check them out at the farmer's market this week!  

My husband said when he tried them: "Tastes like apple pie."  They have the texture of a baked apple and some of that same sweet cinnamon-i-ness.  I have read that in the south, they put watermelon rind pickles on everything from ice cream to pork sandwiches.  I hope you will try them and send me a comment through my website to tell me what you think.

A watermelon feast

I went out the see how my watermelons were doing and found one had grown quite large so I picked it and brought it in for dessert tonight. I tried to weigh it but it was too much for my small scale so my husband cut it in two and weighed each half...

...total weight: 12 pounds, 4 ounces.  A feast for the whole family!  We only ate half of it and we were stuffed.  That baby had a ton of seeds too. Initially we tried to pick them out nicely but after a couple slices gave up and just started spitting them on the counter. It's more fun that way anyway!  A true taste of summer: a good watermelon mess -

I think tomorrow I might try making watermelon rind pickles. 

Moving day!

Last night we finished the items that were left on the small coop, fenced off a part of the run and moved those babies over.  The rooster immediately started pacing back and forth around them, trying to peck at them through the fence. You could see his little wheels turning: who are these little creatures?  Should I eat them or protect them?  How do I get in there?

No one was able to breech the fence, much to our relief, and when I came back out later everyone was ok. The one issue was all the babies had exited the coop into the run but seemed afraid to come back in. They were huddled under the ramp for the night. Since the fencing is temporary we didn't put in a gate. That meant I had to try to reach out and grab them from inside the coop. Boy, was that fun!  

I got about ten of them and put them in but couldn't reach anymore. I thought maybe the others would follow the light and the happy sound of their sisters eating and chirping but not so much. So I tried the old food trick to lure them in. I sprinkled some on the bottom step and waited until they came to eat. Then I slowly added more up the ramp until they came up to the doorway. Once they saw their siblings inside the ran in to join. Finally I got them all in safely for the night. I'm hoping this is something they will learn quickly!  

A most spectacular rainbow

This afternoon it started to drizzle; then it started to pour; then lightening came.  I looked out the window to see that the birds were all waiting by the door, which the wind had blown shut.  I ran out, getting soaked, to open it for them, but they had scattered by then to spots all over the yard - under the water tank, under the trailers, under the new coop... they had found shelter all on their own.  Smart chickens.

So I went back in and continued my evening, feeling a little down and tired.  An hour or so later, I looked out the window again to check on the girls and my breath caught in my chest.  A most spectacular view - I ran outside to see it without a window in the way - a full rainbow, bright and colorful filled the sky over the backyard.  Then a second, fainter arch appeared above it, a double full rainbow.  The last time I saw this same sight was the day my mother passed away.  I stood there for as long as it lasted, savoring it, watching it transform.  It was so beautiful.

It is interesting if you really watch a rainbow to see how it changes.  This one started as a single, full arch.  Then the upper rainbow appeared, fainter but also a full arch.  The upper arch quickly faded but the original one lasted a long time, almost ten minutes.  When it started to go, it split at the middle, fading out towards its ends.  The left side disappeared faster but the right side lasted almost another ten minutes.  It came and went for a bit, looking like it was undulating up from the ground into the sky.  Finally, it was all gone, the last piece evaporating into the clouds.

These are the moments that make you live in the present, forget all else that's on your mind and just be there, appreciating the beauty of this world.

The proud rooster finally crows

Our rooster stands tall and proud as he struts about the yard. He is bigger, more colorful and taller than all the other birds. Recently he's gotten some shimmery emerald green tail feathers. When it's getting dark and he is trying to corral his girls into the coop, he gets mouthy and bossy. They don't always listen but he is insistent!  Yesterday we heard his first real crow: a hearty cock-a-doodle-doo.  I was working in the garden midday while the boys swam and I heard it. It took a minute to register and just as I ran over to ask my family if they heard it too, he did it again: cock-a-doodle-doo!  Our boy is finding his voice.  Hopefully he won't start getting mean because he is fun to watch as he tries to manage his ladies and keep everyone in line.  

Getting ready for another move

The new girls are getting so big!  They are quickly outgrowing their small home in the workshop so we are preparing to move them out into the big coop with the older ladies. In order to keep them safe we are creating an attached but separate space for them, using the small coop we started with. We butted it up against the run and cut a hole in the fencing. 

Now we just need to fence off a little of the run for them and it'll be ready for them. This will enable the different generations of birds to get used to each other without risk of the older ones hurting the younger. Hopefully we will get them out there in the next few days... Stay posted. 

Corn everywhere!

I have been busy busy this last week at this transition time in my garden. The sunflowers reached the point of no return from all the storms and had to be taken down. The corn and cucumbers finished up and saw a final harvest and clearing of the plants. And some of my tomatoes seemed to have pattered out and I removed them as well. The garden is looking clean and ready for a new round of plants as we move towards a little cooler weather at the end of this month. 

Despite losing most of my plants, I was able to harvest a cooler full of ears. We had some for lunch and dinner the next day, gave away a little, and the rest I made into corn relish.  Here's a look into the huge mess I made in the process:

Started with all that corn I had to shuck. 

One of the dogs was watching me longingly so I let her have a small ear that hadn't developed much. She picked it clean!

Here's all the cleaned corn, which then had to be cut off the cob. Here's the really messy part!

It's hard to tell from the picture but I had corn kernels everywhere: all over the counter, floor, backsplash, somehow over into the next room...

Then I cut up peppers and tomatoes from the garden and added them in too. Finally I threw in two chopped onions, vinegar, sugar, salt and a few spices. 

It boiled then simmered for about 20 minutes and finally it was ready for the jars.  Once packed, I processed the jars for 10 minutes and ended up with this loveliness:

I can't wait to try it. I think it was worth getting corn on every surface of my kitchen!