Jenny Lind Melons

In addition to the heirloom tomato seeds we bought in Pennsylvania last spring, we also picked up a packet of melon seeds. Jenny Lind melons are a variety of cantaloupe from the 1800s, and we gave it a try on a whim since it was described as cold-hardy. We always had trouble getting melons to ripen in our relatively short growing season, so this seemed like a reasonably good bet.

We picked the first one at the very end of August:


As you can see, they have a funny shape. The bump on top is not the end that connects to the vine, by the way. 

The inside is also different:


It’s a cantaloupe, but it’s green instead of orange. (This one has already had its seeds scooped out.)

I’m not a huge melon fan — with the notable exception of melons we grow in our garden. These are sooooo sweet and juicy and fragrant that they’re really a totally different thing from the sad melons you get in a restaurant fruit cup or from the grocery store.

This didn’t disappoint! It’s delicious, especially served wrapped in prosciutto:


The sad part of this story is that the rest of the melons ripened while we were on vacation over Labor Day weekend. I picked them as soon as we got back, but they’re pretty fragile when you let them ripen on the vine, and they got moldy before we could finish them. The chickens still enjoyed them, though. I’d definitely like to plant these again next year!

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