Amish Cantaloupe from Seed Saver's Exchange turned out to be the best tasting surprise in the garden! This cantaloupe is what we remember the orange-fleshed melons tasting like when we were kids.
The cantaloupe were anywhere from 4 pounds to over 9 pounds on the produce scale. We picked more than 100 pounds of cantaloupe and there are more ripening right now. Wondering how to preserve them as we couldn't eat that many cantaloupe at once, we decided to try dehydrating them.
The book that came with the Excaliber dehydrator said cantaloupe aren't always a successful fruit to dry. Still, we had to try. So we simply prepared them like we would serve them: Cut the melon is half, scoop out the seeds, cut into quarters, peel, them slice each quarter section about 1/4 inch thick. Put them in the dehydrator at 135 degrees and in 10 - 12 hours, the slices were dry...and delicious!
This jar is holding about 8 cantaloupe! That's hard to believe, but true! Next we will try frozen cubes of cantaloupe for smoothies!
