Melon

“ In the centre is an enormous fruit like a dark orange-coloured melon, surrounded by heaps of others, while the plain brown chestnuts, that don't attract much notice, are really the best of all, for they are the marrons glacés for which Marseilles is famed, and once you have tasted these, freshly made, all other sweets will seem insipid to you. ”

“ Persons who have visited hot climates know well how to appreciate the grateful coolness and delicious flavour of the water melon, the flesh of which is so succulent that it melts in the mouth; and the central pulp of which is fluid, like that of the cocoa-nut, and may be sucked, or poured out through a hole in the rind, and thus made to afford a most refreshing beverage.
To the inhabitants of Egypt, China, the East Indies, and other countries, where they are cultivated to a great extent, water melons are extremely valuable, {210}both as food and physic. ”

“ When they are to be served plain as a breakfast food or a luncheon dessert, cut them crosswise into halves, or, if they are large, divide them into sections lengthwise. With the melons cut in the desired way, remove all the seeds and keep the melons on ice until they are to be served. The pulp of the melon may also be cut from the rind and then diced and used in the making of fruit salads. Again, the pulp may be partly scraped out of the melon and the rinds then filled with fruit mixtures and served with a salad dressing for a salad or with fruit juices for a cocktail. ”

“ In this country it is but too common to regard the melon simply as a dessert fruit, to be eaten with sugar and accompanied by wine. Eaten in this way the melon is excellent; but perhaps the true use of the melon, like that of most fruits, is to form the initial dish of the day. In America it is customary to begin breakfast with a melon seasoned with pepper and salt.
The apple crop is commencing in most parts of the country; but winter apples will not be picked until quite the end of the month.
Buying at the Stores almost necessitates buying in large quantities. ”

“ Our Indian-corn was very fine; so were the pumpkins. We had some fine vegetables in the garden, especially the peas and melons; the latter were very large and fine. The cultivation of the melon is very simple: you first draw the surrounding earth together with a broad hoe into a heap; the middle of this heap is then slightly hollowed out, so as to form a basin, the mould being raised round the edges; into this hollow you insert several melon-seeds, and leave the rest to the summer heat; if you water the plants from time to time, it is well for them; the soil should be fine black mould ”

“ Ingredients.—Small melons, small French beans, grated horseradish, cloves, ground nutmeg, cinnamon, pepper, vinegar, and to each quart add 1 teaspoonful each of cloves, allspice and black peppercorns.
Method.—Cut off one end, scoop out the inside of each melon, then replace and secure the end. Cover the melons with strong brine, let them remain undisturbed for 4 days, then drain and dry well. Sprinkle the inside of each melon liberally with cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and pepper, and stuff them with well-seasoned French beans and horseradish. ”

“ Largest of all fruits, yet growing on the lowliest of fruit-bearing plants, the huge and heavy melon, attached to a stem which actually trails upon the ground, must abase itself to the very earth during the period of growth, though destined perhaps, when gathered, to be exalted to the table of princes. ”

“ The water-melon they eat a great deal of, and it is very nice in a hot country as theirs is. It is as big as a man’s head, with a hard, green rind, and in the inside is what looks like pink snow, with a sweetish taste, and black seeds. ”

“ Unlike the other melons mentioned, which are oblong and green, and very tender of rind, the Winter is round, nearly white-skinned and of a hardness approaching the citron. The flesh, however, is red and very firm. It must not be concluded that the Winter is a late season melon, for it is one of the earliest, continuing to bear until frost cuts the vines, so that it may be grown for a single melon crop if desired. ”

“ When the flesh of the melon changes color and its seeds begin to turn black a small scale or blister appears on the rind. They increase in number and size as the melon ripens, until a ripe one shows them thickly strewn over the surface. ”

“ Cantaloupes, or small melons, should be placed on ice the night preceding their use. Cut or slice off the top of each melon; remove the seeds, and replace them with fine ice; replace the covers, and send to table looking as though uncut.
Should they taste insipid, trim off the rind, cut the remainder into neat pieces, pour over them a plain salad-dressing, and they will be found quite palatable. ”

“ A sort of melon grows on tall plants and is eaten with salt as one does cantaloupe, but it grows very much larger. It is without doubt the melon tree found everywhere in the tropics, probably of the papaya family. ”

“ The water-melon is of an oval or cylindrical shape, its colour is a bright polished green, and partly a very pale buff; the pulp of this fruit is a pink colour, and of a mellow watery substance; its taste is sweet, exceedingly cooling, and of a most agreeable flavour. ”

“ In its manner of growth, foliage, flowering, and in the odor and taste of the ripened fruit, it strongly resembles the musk-melon. The fruit is slender and flexuous; frequently measures more than three feet in length; and is often gracefully coiled or folded in a serpent-like form. The skin is green; the flesh, while the fruit is forming, is greenish-white,—at maturity, yellow; the seeds are yellowish-white, oval, flattened, often twisted or contorted like those of some varieties of melons, and retain their vitality five years. ”

“ Melons grow in Fields, and are plentier than Pumpkins in England, as large and as tasteless; there are such Quantities that the Houses stink of them; the Heat of the Country makes them at once mellow, so that they hardly ever have the fine racy Taste of an English good Melon, for in England you have many bad Melons to one good; but here the Heat makes all Fruits like us young fellows, rotten before they are ripe. ”

“ The water-melons revelled in the heat, and Olive revelled in the water-melons: for by a blessed compensation of Nature the hotter and drier the land, the cooler and juicier the water-melons seem to be. The water-melon of the western prairie is as different from the pallid green-fleshed vegetable which masquerades under its name in this country, as the full moon of the heavens is superior to the lime-light article manufactured for use on the stage. ”

“ If a fellow could get but a bit of earth to put them melon-seeds in, we might be eating our fruit like gentlemen, two months hence, or three months, at the latest."
"That is a good thought, Betts, and we will turn it over in our minds. If such a thing is to be done at all, the sooner it is done the better, that the melons maybe getting ahead while we are busy with the other matters. This is just the season to put seed into the ground, and I think we might make soil enough to sustain a few hills of melons. ”

“ The fruit is globular, ovoid, spindle-shaped, or serpent-like, netted or smooth-skinned, ribbed or furrowed, variously coloured externally, with white, green, or orange flesh when ripe, scented or scentless, sweet or insipid, bitter or even nauseous, &c. Like the gourd, the melon undergoes strange metamorphoses by crossing its varieties, though the latter preserve their characters when alone. The offspring of all crossings are fertile. ”

“ It is the bean in it. The bean is a vulgar vegetable, without culture, or any flavor of high society among vegetables. Then there is the cool [Pg 269] cucumber, like so many people,—good for nothing when it is ripe and the wildness has gone out of it. How inferior in quality it is to the melon, which grows upon a similar vine, is of a like watery consistency, but is not half so valuable! The cucumber is a sort of low comedian in a company where the melon is a minor gentleman. I might also contrast the celery with the potato. ”

“ The most popular melon in cultivation, is extensively grown in warm climates throughout the world, but most abundantly in southern Russia and the southern United States. It leads all minor vegetables in acreage, being surpassed only by the major vegetables, potato and sweet potato. Texas, Georgia, North Carolina and Missouri are the chief growers in the order named. ”

“ The popularity of this cool and delicious fruit has in recent years been greatly enhanced by increased knowledge as to the best method of treating the plant, and also by the introduction of several varieties which are attractive in form and superb in flavour. It would shock a modern Melon eater to be advised to cook a Melon, and flavour it with vinegar and salt, as in the early days of English gardening. A good Melon of the present day does not even need the addition of sugar ”

“ The cheeks of this melon, that is the doors, which bore traces of yellow paint, shut very badly owing to the rickety condition of the handles and locks, which were tied up with string. The melon was full of cotton cushions in the shape of pouches, rolling-pins and simple pillows, stuffed up with sacks of bread, fancy loaves, doughnuts and pasties, and bread rings made of boiled dough. ”

“ The COMMON MELON, or MUSK MELON, is a species of cucumber, produced by a creeping herbaceous plant (Cucumis melo) , which has leaves with rounded angles, and grows wild in Tartary.
In hot climates this fruit attains great perfection and a peculiarly fine flavour; and even in England, where it is cultivated in hot-beds, and sheltered by glass frames, it is one of the coolest and most delicious summer fruits {208}that we possess. Its size and form vary beyond description. ”

“ An annual plant, destined only to exist for the space of a few months, yet to attain large dimensions in all its parts, the growth of the melon is very rapid, the newly-quickened seed soon sending forth tender succulent shoots, which, as they speedily lengthen, develope numerous large, alternately-disposed, lobed leaves, accompanied by spiral tendrils ”

“ The real prairie water-melon is an enormous affair, being about as large as the roll of rugs without which fussy gentlemen consider it impossible to travel. The skin is of the darkest green and as hard as a board, a most unripe-looking object at all times. Indeed the only way one can find out the condition of a water-melon’s insides is by surgical operation. You simply cut out a plug about an inch square from the top side of the melon, and look to see if the flesh has turned crimson at the 142centre. ”

“ WatermelonWatermelon Mark uneven, lengthwise bands around it with a soft lead-pencil and fasten in the stem with sealing-wax. Bore a hole in the large end of the melon, making the opening big enough to admit the end of a small curved twig which must form the stem; put on enough sealing-wax to secure firmness (Fig. 67) . Convert the purple egg into
Fig. 68.
A Plum by fastening it on a natural twig in the same way you stuck the melon on its stem. Gum two green tissue-paper leaves to the branch for foliage (Fig. 68) . ”

“ Take young watermelons, cucumbers or cantelopes; scrape the melons, and cut the rinds in shapes--leave the cucumbers whole; put them in a preserving kettle with alum and water; cover them, and let them boil till they are transparent; take them out, wash them in cold water, and wipe each piece separately; have your kettle nicely cleaned, and give them rather more than their weight in sugar; put a layer of sugar, and a layer of melon, some slices of green ginger, and the rind and juice of a lemon; let them stew over the fire till the syrup is rich ”

“ To sight, the watermelon is a long greenish body, but this is its least important quality. Sight alone gives the poorest idea of the watermelon. We approach the vine where the fruit is growing, and in order to decide whether it is ripe, we tap the rind and judge by the sound. We must remember that a ripe watermelon has a certain resonance. By passing our hands over the melon, we learn that it has certain touch characteristics. We cut it open and learn the qualities of taste and smell. All this knowledge afforded by the different senses must enter into a perfected memory image. ”

“ Since it never rains at the melon season of the year, the plug does not do any harm if left on the top side, but the beginner sometimes leaves it on the lower side, with the result that all the water runs away. It is a curious fact, but the water of a melon, even of one picked in the middle of a scorching hot day, never seems tepid. It is always cool and refreshing, even at times when ordinary water tastes unutterably mawkish owing to the excessive heat. ”

“ Take hard melons, after they are sufficiently ripe to be well flavored. Slice them lengthwise, scrape out the seed, and lay the melon in salt over night; wash and wipe dry, put them in alum water one hour, wash and wipe them again; cut them in slices and pack in jars. Pour over them a syrup of vinegar seasoned with cinnamon and cloves; put three or four pounds of sugar to one gallon vinegar, and boil until it is right thick.—Mrs. ”

“ One or two Greek natives followed us about with melons to sell. Parched and choked with sand, we were only too glad to buy these water-melons for two or three leptas.
The rind was green like a vegetable marrow, but the inside was yellow with pink and crimson pips—the colour of a Mediterranean sunset.
One day ashore on this accursed island and the diarrhoea set in. I never saw men suffer such awful stomach-pains before. The continual eating of melons to allay the blistering thirst helped the disease. ”