Watermelon Pickles

Summer is flying by.  For us folk that live in the northern part of the country, where summer goes by way too fast and winter sets in way to quick, we tend to burn the candle at both ends so we can enjoy every second of the warm weather.  I haven't had much time to put anything on my blog, but hopefully this fall things will be a little less hectic.  We had a new baby born into our family in June.  We also had a wedding and graduation parties, like everyone else.  I was also lucky enough to be baptized two weeks ago.  What an amazing celebration to have been a part of.  There were 991 participants.  It was wonderful.....

Anyways back to my post.... I've always wanted to try watermelon pickles.  This past week end was the perfect opportunity to do so.  I had just cut up a whole watermelon for my granddaughter's graduation party and I had a little time, so I thought what the heck.  I checked out the internet for recipes and I found this one.... I had all the ingredients and the necessary equipment to make them so I went for it.  They turned out great! 

Update:  May, 2013... Made my first batch of watermelon pickles on Monday.  My husband absolutely loves them.  We had gone to the lake and purchased a watermelon which we never got around to eating. When I got home, I sliced it up and saved half of it for eating. The other half I put in a blender with some strawberries.  Then I strained the pulp and seeds out and added some vodka to it and made "Adult Slushies".  Will use them the next time we're at the lake.  Then I peeled the rind and made watermelon pickles.  So that watermelon went a long long way.... Enjoy!

Pickled Watermelon 

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds watermelon rind
• 1/4 cup pickling salt
• 4 cups water
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup white vinegar
• 1 tablespoon broken stick cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons whole cloves
• 1/2 lemon, thinly sliced
• 5 maraschino cherries, halved,optional

Preparation:

Trim the dark green and pink parts from watermelon rind. Cut rind in 1-inch cubes and measure 7 cups. Soak watermelon rind overnight in a mixture of the pickling salt and water. If it takes more to cover, use the same proportion salt to water. Drain and rinse watermelon rind. Cover rind with cold water in a large saucepan; cook just until tender. Meanwhile, in a 6 to 8-quart kettle or Dutch oven, combine sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, whole cloves, and 1 cup water. Simmer mixture 10 minutes, then strain. Add drained watermelon rind, lemon slices, and maraschino cherries, if using. Simmer the mixture until watermelon rind is translucent. Fill hot half-pint jars with watermelon rind and syrup mixture, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Adjust lids. Process in boiling water bath for 5 minutes.
Makes 2 1/2 pints.

http://southernfood.about.com/od/picklesrelishes/r/bln223.htm

Enjoy!