Garden!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sl1000794]

has anyone ever tasted or made watermelon wine ? It must be sweet and not bitter ? Not normally a wine drinker but I like watermelon and thinking it might be worth trying. Have a dozen or so watermelon that I'm wondering what to do with.

Davey, I made wine in CA with 2 other guys for 30 years, one who was an experienced home winemaker. We principally made Cab, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Sugar in grapes is measured in brix with each brix equalling 1% of sugar. Each 1 percent or 1 brix will make 0.55% alcohol when fully fermented. So a 20 brix grape harvest will make an 11% wine. We used to shoot for 25-26 brix and get a 14% ± wine. Looking at making watermelon wine I think that the sugar content in watermelons vs. the water content in watermelons you could never make a decent wine without fortifying it with sugar, something that isn't done in making wine from grapes. The only way to be sure of the sugar content would be to crush and press the pulp from a melon and check the sugar content. There is a device (it looks like a small telescope) that reads the percent of sugar thru refraction. It's called a refractometer. Check this website: https://www.coleparmer.com/tech-article/refractometers

Davey I misspoke when I said to crush/press the juice of a melon. All you need to do is squeeze a drop of watermelon juice on to the refractometer.

 

[Davey Crockett]

I'll have to read into that SL, Thanks. My dad made chokecherry wine and that was some raunchy stuff. The old-timers liked it but not me.

 

[sl1000794]

I'll have to read into that SL, Thanks. My dad made chokecherry wine and that was some raunchy stuff. The old-timers liked it but not me.

Another thing I forgot (haven't made wine since 2012), we always fermented the must (grape juice for making wine) with the skins, seeds and sometimes with some stems thrown in to give the wine tannin (the pucker factor in red wine.) Not sure you would have any tannin even if you added some of the rind. Also good wine should have a certain amount of acid in it. I don't know what/how the acid is supplied by the grapes, but I would doubt that watermelons have it. More of my $0.02.

Also John would get a particular yeast from the wine store for each varietal of wine we made. There probably is nothing for watermelon wine.

 

[LBrandt]

Had more veggies than I was able to sell "AGAIN" so we made a giveaway run on Saturday. Got rid of 120# tomatoes, 50# potato, 50# Green peppers, 100# onions, about 25# cukes and assorted other stuff, The Subaru was full. LB

 

[Traxion]

My stuff was all nearly done. Yanked it all out yesterday. Hard freeze coming early this week along with possibly a dusting of snow. Let fall begin, from 98 degrees to snow in 3 days!

 

[Davey Crockett]

It was a different year for gardening up here for sure, Not all bad but I learned a lot. Usually have to start looking through the corn and pluck a few ripe cobs and then have a 2 or 3 week window before it starts to deteriorate but this year it all ripened at the same time so we only had a few days in it's prime. Freezers are full so have to get it to the kids before deer season. Tomatoes are just starting to ripen and most of them on wheels so I can bring them in when it freezes. Dug two potato hills, One about a month ago and one a couple days ago one white and one red . Both had 5 medium sized potatoes but they are nice looking and without scab, Id rather have 5 good spuds than 8 or 10 scabby ones. Out of 3 pumpkin plants I only have one decent sized pumpkin but I'll cover them and see if there are any survivors. The bonus crop this year for me was watermelons . First time in my life that they have matured and I don't know what went right other than the heat and the wind whipped them hard and I almost gave them up for dead at one point. I'll have to read up and see if I should cover them before the frost or pick them.

Just when I was going to quit gardening and start buying store bought I decided that probably isn't a wise decision so I decided to go ahead with my long lost idea of adding a lean to greenhouse one the south end of our house for aquaculture, energy savings and year around fresh produce. I'll post pics as the project comes together.

 

[LBrandt]

I too was blessed with a good watermelon crop. Now with the danger of frost should I try to cover or pick. Will frost hurt the fruit or just kill the plant?

 

[Davey Crockett]

I too was blessed with a good watermelon crop. Now with the danger of frost should I try to cover or pick. Will frost hurt the fruit or just kill the plant?

I'll probably be able to give you some advice later on today , I picked one last night and covered the rest . It's down to 22 this morning here.

 

[Davey Crockett]

LB , I was able to save my watermelon plants with a double layer of quilts but based on what I am reading I'm going to pick most them today. You are south and lots warmer down there so you might be ok. I have two patches will leave one to fend with the cool short days for a while. I guess even down south by mid Sept. they start loosing the sweetness. Check out dehydrated watermelon , It's a long process to dry it down but I bets it's good. Everything I didn't cover is deader than a doornail.

 

[LBrandt]

Should only get to 34 or 35 tonight according to weather forecast, going to chance it cause there is no way in hell I can cover that much ground. I did pick about 100# of 1/2 ripe tomatoes and put in garage along with the last of the onions and cukes that were big enough. 5 gal bucket of green peppers too. Still have about 100ft of potatoes to dig and a 3' X 30' row of carrots. If no frost I should have another 200# of tomatoes to ripen and then there is the clean up of all those tomatoes that got ripe faster then I could get rid of them. LB

 

[Davey Crockett]

Holy Mackrels LB you garden big. I butchered a watermelon today and talk about sweet and tasty . I ate what I consider a health portion and checked my blood sugar 45 minutes later and was almost 400 when I should have been in the high 100s or low 200s when comparing it to store bought watermelon.

 

[LBrandt]

Davy Its not my fault this year. This spring I told the wife to stop at FFarm and pick up 24 of three diffrent kinds of tomatoes and one kind of green peppers. She came home with 24 of the 4 packs which counts up to 96 of each kind. Not counting the odd-ball stuff I start from seed myself. I had to break some virgin ground and I still didnt get them all planted, live and learn. LB

 

[Davey Crockett]

Davy Its not my fault this year. This spring I told the wife to stop at FFarm and pick up 24 of three diffrent kinds of tomatoes and one kind of green peppers. She came home with 24 of the 4 packs which counts up to 96 of each kind. Not counting the odd-ball stuff I start from seed myself. I had to break some virgin ground and I still didnt get them all planted, live and learn. LB

Live and learn is a good description of when you send a woman shopping for garden stuff. They will even buy you nice looking shoes out on the display rack even if they don't fit. Haha. Been there and done that.

 

[sl1000794]

LB , I was able to save my watermelon plants with a double layer of quilts but based on what I am reading I'm going to pick most them today. You are south and lots warmer down there so you might be ok. I have two patches will leave one to fend with the cool short days for a while. I guess even down south by mid Sept. they start loosing the sweetness. Check out dehydrated watermelon , It's a long process to dry it down but I bets it's good. Everything I didn't cover is deader than a doornail.

Davey, I din't think any garden product can lose its sweetness (sugar) that it has gotten from the sun while it grew. Maybe by losing it's water content it can become woody, and not taste good but it cannot lose it's sugar content. Wine makers make dessert wines by letting Zin and Cab grapes go to "raisin" by not picking them until the vines have died (the grape stems have dried out) and the grape clusters do not get any more nutrients (water) from the plant. Usually the grapes are from 30 - 35% sugar and make a 16 - 18% port.

 

[Davey Crockett]

You may be right , I'm just going by what I read on the watermelon threads.

 

[Jiffy]

I had an overabundance of tomatoes this year and was trying to find new ways to use them. I'm not sure what took me so long to do this but I made tomato soup. OMG where has this been for my whole life?!? I don't think I'll be able to eat canned stuff again. I may be "late to the party" on this but I'm glad I arrived!!

 

[guywhofishes]

Funny how the weather changes from year to year. Last year we froze sweet corn on Sept 15 and this year we are canning as I type. Taking a break, cannot feel my fingers anymore. The whole garden has been overwhelming this year with a lot of stuff still going on and will be until Oct. Only thing that didn't produce is our apple trees. Lots of apples but are small in size. Going to take a lot of them to make 25 pints of apple sauce. Better get back at it 35 pints of reg. corn today and 35 pints of creamed corn Sunday.LB

well now we know who jinxed us with the freeze

 

[Ruttin]

I pulled the sheets off the tomatoes, cucs, and peppers this morning...glad they got covered because the sheets were stiff as a board. She was a frosty morning!

 

[wstnodak]

I had an overabundance of tomatoes this year and was trying to find new ways to use them. I'm not sure what took me so long to do this but I made tomato soup. OMG where has this been for my whole life?!? I don't think I'll be able to eat canned stuff again. I may be "late to the party" on this but I'm glad I arrived!!

Recipe or it didn't happen.

 

[Jiffy]

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/39544/garden-fresh-tomato-soup/

Only difference is I put the sugar and the salt in while simmering, then added to taste after. I find adding it while it's cooking is almost always better.

I didn't use a food mill. I used an immersion blender and then strained it through a sieve.

I also threw in a couple jalapenos, seeds and all, to add a little kick.

I simmered it (covered) longer than 30 minutes ....about 5 beers time. Probably an hour or so I'm guessing. It can't hurt as you puree it anyway.