Summertime in a Jar

 

I began canning in 1986, with my mummy. Her frenetic kitchen habits kept most people away, but I was her protégé and basked in the wildness, whether it was pounding her fists and shouting "BARNEY FITZGIBBON" while rolling pie crusts, hollering a dozen orders at once in the midst of getting everything on the table simultaneously for Easter, or simply bellowing, "Hot hot hot... OUTTA MY WAY" while shifting pasta from stovetop to the sink for draining. Everything in the kitchen was fast, furious, and frantic. 

Canning was no different. Stirring stockpots for hours on end, constantly watching for that miraculous "sheet" that would let us know the jelly was ready for jars was hot, exhausting... and we loved every second of it. We would laugh, cry, scream, or bellow at the top of our lungs, but in the end there were always endless rows of jellies, pickles, and relish lined up in neat rows, ready to be enjoyed all winter long. 

Eleven years ago, I also began canning on my own; wanting to try new flavors. Eight years ago, was my last canning-day with Mummy. This year, teach my daughter how to can, keeping the tradition - and recipes - alive.

It will be much, much quieter. 

Watermelon rind pickles. They seem to be a thing of the past... people will say, "Oh, I used to eat those!" or "My grandmother used to make those!" but they're always spoken of in the past tense. It's watermelon season, and in our house... watermelon pickles are very much on our mind! They were the first recipe my daughter requested, and the reason we hunted for something to do with the actual fruit from multiple melons... because while most people buy watermelon for the pink part, we were after the rinds! 

June is watermelon season here. Once they went on sale AND there were a few days of nicer weather, I picked up two perfect ripe melons, ready to can. My daughter has been recovering from a nasty cold, and wasn't quite ready for two days in the kitchen, so she will learn with the NEXT batch of canning. 

Before making the pickles, something needed to be done with all of the fruit. I altered a recipe from online, and decided to make watermelon jam. With only four ingredients it might be the simplest recipe I've canned to date, but it tastes like summertime in a jar. 

This is an amazing new recipe for us! It reminds me of Jolly Rancher candies, and is just perfect on toast. Once it gets colder, I can't wait to try it on my daughter's crepes. The texture was slightly soft-set so I might increase the pectin to a full cup next year, but we are absolutely going to make this again, and again, and again...

Once the jam was made, it was time to process the pickles. While chopping rind for the brine, the first melon produced 17 cups, and since I wanted a small batch, (no more than 7 pints since that's what fits in my canner) I didn't bother cutting up the second one. By the time they were processed, those rinds had shrunk down by HALF! I only had 4 1/2 pints of pickles... barely enough to last us until Christmas! 

I'd read the quantity on Mummy's recipe and doubled the amount to get 7 pints. But for kitchen science reasons beyond my understanding, it wasn't enough. So I quickly diced up the second melon, and popped it into the fridge to brine all day.

Just before bedtime last night, I finished the second batch of pickles. It took one watermelon to create 8 1/2 pints of watermelon jam, but I needed TWO watermelons to create the same amount of pickles. *shrugs* I'll leave the science part of that mystery to someone else, and simply enjoy the fruits of my labor.

Two days of canning. 

Two shelves of summertime, preserved for our long Minnesota winters.  

One very tired mama housemouse.