Succulent and juicy - this old German recipe for watermelon pickles combines sweet peppers and ripe watermelon in a light sweet & sour brine for a most unusual and addictive pickle. Try some this summer when the watermelons and peppers are abundant! (Skip to recipe.)
One misty, moisty morning, when cloudy was the weather,
I chanced to meet an old man, clothed all in leather.
I said, “How do you do? How do you do?” and “How do you do again?”
These are the words that play over and over in my head whenever we have a beautiful foggy morning like we have the last two days. They are snippets of a song from my childhood, and I’m not even sure if I’ve remembered them correctly, but somehow they fit.
Misty moisty.
Everything shrouded in soft, eerie mystery. Looking familiar, yet somehow not. Hiding another layer that we can’t normally see. My garden looks softer, the bright colours muted and earthy. My yard looks like it’s mine, but maybe not. Maybe it’s a different yard, a different world.
I see it with new eyes.
I love this kind of weather. It makes me excited in my bones. Fall is coming. My favourite season of the year. After the languor of summer, my senses sharpen and come alive in the Fall. It has always been associated with new beginnings for me: school starting, my birthday at the end of August, bringing in the harvest, canning with my mom, the anticipation of Thanksgiving, Halloween and Christmas, traipsing after my dad in the brilliant fall forests as he hunted. And inhaling the deep, rich smells of the autumn air. And crisp cold apples to crunch into, right off the tree.
My garden has that look now – rich, ripe and calling me to dig out the last treasures. Like the tall heads of dill. Sentinals waving their floppy plumes – little wind-inverted umbrella skeletons.
And when I woke up this morning and viewed the misty, moisty morning outside and the rows of watermelon pickles lined up on the counter inside, I sighed. Sipped my steaming tea and smiled.
Fall is here.
Like all the women in my family, my Auntie Lily is an amazing cook, and this is her recipe, handwritten into my recipe collection when I was newly married. The amounts are somewhat general, like those of all priceless family recipes. Use one watermelon to a few pounds of peppers. It’ll make several quarts. How’s that for precise?
Auntie Lily’s Watermelon Pickles
- Watermelon
- Sweet peppers
- Dill sprigs
- Garlic
- Pickling salt
- Water
- Vinegar
- Sugar
Prepare the watermelon: cut the melon in half, place cut-side down on a cutting board and with a sharp knife, slice away the peel, including all the white parts. Cut the watermelon into rough chunks, about 3 to 4 inches long (10 to 12 cm) and 1 inch wide (2 to 3 cm).
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| Trusty assistant hubby doing watermelon duty |
Prepare the peppers: wash them, core them, and cut into lengthwise wedges, several inches wide. Trim off the bent-over lips at the top and bottom of each wedge to make them flat and easier to slip into the jars. (Use the trimmings in a vegetable sauté for supper.)
Into each sterilized quart jar, put one blossom-head of dill (or sprig of the herb, if you can’t get blossoms) and 1 peeled clove of garlic.
Fill the jars with watermelon chunks and peppers – in a ratio of about ¾ watermelon to ¼ peppers. Wedge them in as tightly as you can without squashing the watermelon pieces into mush.
Sprinkle 1 tsp. pickling salt into each jar.
Enjoy all winter long and think of autumn.
Guten Appetit!
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Roswitha
Hi Margret,
I just love to read your blogs and all the great recipes.
I tried a few and love them. I will try your/Mabel's proofed Beets etc.
Thank you for all the passion you have, and keep going, we all are waiting for the next good read.
Big Hug
Roswitha
Margaret
You are so kind, Roswitha, that means a lot to me. Thank you for supporting me and reading my blog. I really appreciate it. Hope you have a wonderful end-of-the-summer, and enjoy your garden and beautiful yard.
Lee
Interesting. I read you're of German German descent, am I correct. I always was of the belief that these pickled watermelons were Germans from Russia and they'd learned to pickle the watermelons from the Russians. Russians love these sour pickled watermelons. Too, many of the Germans from Russia use either the Ukrainian word or the Hungarian words for watermelon which would lead me to believe when they moved to South Russia from western German districts in the 18th century, they saw their first watermelons in Eastern Europe, why else don't they use the German word for watermelon?
Margaret
You are spot on with your observations, and you raise some interesting thoughts. Yes, also, I am of German descent, and you guessed it - my parents are both from groups of German settlers that colonized Russia under Catherine the Great. My dad (whose sister is the one that taught me how to make these watermelon pickles) was born in Kiev, Ukraine, and had to speak Russian in school until they became refugees and had to make their long way (over several years) back to Germany during and after WWII. So I'm sure you're right and they probably learned to make pickled watermelons from their Russian neighbours. They also pickled apples in stone crocks, as well as the usual pickles and peppers. My mom came from the area of Bessarabia (present day Moldova) and also remembers using Russian words for certain foods and things as a child. The foods they could grow in those fertile areas are probably a bit different than what they could grow once they got back to Germany. The history of these families is so fascinating.
Thanks so much for visiting my blog and for sending your interesting comments. I had never questioned where these specific foods came from - just knew I loved them. My mom says she knows they used a Russian word for watermelon, too, but can't remember it now, since she left Bessarabia when she was just a child. You've got me thinking about all this interesting history.
Warm wishes for a Happy New Year to you.
Bessie
Thankyou for this great site. I am going to try this as soon as my dill is ready. Now I will wander around and look for another one of your interesting ideas. Have you ever made candyed Jalapenos?
Margaret
Thanks for visiting. It's such fun to talk food, isn't it? I have been meaning to pickle my own jalapenos, but candied jalapenos sound really interesting. Sweet and hot is such a great combination.