It appears that we will soon have quite a few musk melons for our after-dinner treat. I have absolutely no clever ideas how to eat a melon except perhaps mixed with other fruit and with some whipped cream. Surely, there must be some recipes somewhere for all these melons?
Melon soufflé? (Ick). Melon pie? (Double ick.) Melon crepes? (Gimme a break.) Melon cookies? (Not.)
What the heck do you do with a melon besides, well, eat the melon?
Musk Melons
Although we continue to harvest copious quantities of cucumbers, they are actually inedible because they are terribly bitter. I am growing compost food.
A Google search tells me that cucumbers “under stress” will taste bitter, although they can recover with time and care.
Stress can be caused by poor nutrition or drought. I’m voting for drought.
Although I have been watering nearly every singe day, my own personal belief is that water from a hose isn’t nearly as good as half as much water from the sky. And unfortunately, we have only had about 1/2″ of rain in about the past 6-7 weeks.
In fact, the garden is altogether looking a bit stressed because I’m spending nearly all my time garden time hand watering and not enough time doing other things such as cleaning up and dead-heading.
Sigh…
Also, the moles have moved in. In my master gardener class, I remember that they talked about how mulched pathways were a fine habitat for moles. Well, I am here to tell you that this does, indeed, appear to be the case. We have lovely mulched paths throughout the Colonial theme garden. But walking through the paths is now like walking on marshmallows, the paths are so very aerated and squishy from the mole work. The other day, I even TRIPPED on a mole hill!
It’s quite a quandary since I don’t want to introduce chemicals to deter the moles where I grow my food.
Sigh (again)…
On another note…If it seems that I have been absurdly home-based lately, never fear. I head to Chicago this weekend where I will visit the botanical gardens. On August 8, I will head to Denver where I will visit the botanical gardens there. And then I will soon after visit Lake Toxaway in North Carolina, where the vegetation is just aching to be photographed. Naturally, I will submit all my travel reports to Bumblebee Blog.
Oh…and my friend Angela and I are headed to Las Vegas in September, compliments of the Venetian. They seem to have gotten it into their heads that I will spend money there, so they are giving me a suite for three nights and a bunch of tokens to waste in the slot machines. Truly, they want their $2,000 that I won on a fluke a few months ago while there on business.
Angela is really the gambler and plays in regular poker tournaments. She is also quite adventurous. During her last visit to Vegas with a guy-pal, she not only played poker, she accompanied him to a girlie show and went to some seedy venue where she got to shoot a Tommy gun. I am hoping for a bit more high-brow entertainment. Firearms and fake boobs don’t appeal to me.
I wonder if Angela would go hiking? Or on one of those night time tours of the desert using night vision goggles? Angela?
And, by the way, I take my 16-year-old son to get his drivers license tomorrow. Life will never be the same.
Until next time…
Hi! I'm Robin Ripley author of Wisdom for Home Preservers, published by Taunton Press. I am also co-author of Grocery Gardening. Bumblebee is about my life in rural Maryland, my garden and my love of food, my little dogs and pet chickens. You can follow me on Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook. Thank you for visiting!
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I have no idea what else you would do with musk melon other than just eat it. How about musk melon milk shakes?
Good luck with those moles, don’t send them here! That’s all I (don’t) need!
Looking forward to your reports from the road…
Carol at May Dreams Gardens
Oh, no! Not moles! I had several of them two years and I just wanted to cry everytime I went into the garden. I didn’t know what to do about them, and summer was nearly over, so I just gave up. The last two years (crossing my fingers) I haven’t had any trouble. I’ll cross my fingers that you find something that drives them off. BTW – I never heard of cucumbers getting bitter before – live and learn.
I was going to say melon smoothee, And I think I have a recipe for a melon sherbet or ice cream, which makes me realize I still didn’t send you the pickle recipes I promised.
And can’t you just cut up melon and freeze it? But I wish I had your problem. We will be lucky to get some melons before frost. My kids are growing watermelons this year and this afternoon they reported very excitedly that they are the size of grapes.
Hey Robin,
Did I read your post correctly and you’ll be visiting Chicago? If you get a chance and haven’t been to Millennium Park go take a stroll. And if you are near the Lincoln Park Zoo there is a small plant conservatory next to it called the Lincoln Park Conservatory that you should visit too. It’s small but they have some nice plants and the entrance is free.
No idea what it is. I can now see yesterday’s pictures but not today. I don’t get it. I do like your mystery plant photos though. We jsut moved into our house and the previous owners have made a mess of the gardens they do have so now it’s a matter of finding out what everything is before I get rid of it or move it!
Hi Robin,
I was going to suggest Melon Smoothie also, made with vanilla yogurt and a little orange juice. YUM
Add the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum to your list for a future gardening trip (it will provide you with a plethora of ideas for your country estate). I’ll drive up from Rochester and meet you there and then we’ll head back to St Paul for a tour through the Como Park Conservatory and the Eloise Butler wildflower gardens too.
Hi –
Of all the ideas, I think that melon smoothie or milk shake sounds the best. What can go wrong with ice cream, right?
Kathy – Thanks for sending along the pickle recipes. They will be put to good use–if I can ever find the way to "fix" my bitter cucumbers.
Thanks for visiting Mr. BrownThumb! I’m only going to be in Chicago for a short while and my only free time is Sunday afternoon. Do you think that the botanical garden or Millenium Park is the better plan? Either way, I’ll add all to my list since I get to Chicago pretty frequently.
–Robin (Bumblebee)
Ruthie –
Now a road trip sounds like fun! I’m going to be in Minneapolis sometime in the fall. Are you anywhere near there?
–Robin (Bumblebee)
Hi Robin,
I live in Rochester (about 85 miles south of Mpls), so yeah, pretty close. Keep me posted!
Love your writing style. I’ll be visiting often. It’s always nice to see and read about green gardens in the depths of our desert summer when everything here is dormant.
Well probably the Botanical Garden as that you could spend an afternoon at. Millennium Park could be seen in about an hour.
it looks like a cabbage butterfly to me–Pieridae.
http://bugguide.net/node/view/2651