What looks like a watermelon...but isn't?

[MicroPilot]

Is it a Christmas Melon?

Christmas Melon: Cooking Terms: RecipeTips.com

 

[jinman]

I may not have the spelling or name correct, but my father used to talk about a Citron, (or Sitrone?) melon sometimes referred to as a "pie melon" that was grown like watermelons. He used to talk about growing them and having people cut them as a joke, thinking they were cutting a watermelon. That may be what you have George.

 

[HappyCPE]

I was just thinking Citron as well. I'm told they taste lousy but you're supposed to soak the flesh in a sugar syrup to make an edible fruit. Not a common thing to find.

You seem to have stumped us - Do you have a picture?

 

[N80]

My father suggested that it might be a citron and my wife looked it up and the dictionary said a citron was a citrus fruit so we dismissed that idea, but since two more people have suggested it I'll do a little more research.

I did taste it just now. Again, the 'meat' is hard and has the consistency of watermelon rind. And it tastes just like the white part of watermelon rind with just a vague hint of watermelon flavor and not very sweet at all.

Here is a picture. You can see the three partitions and that the seeds are in 'lobes':

 

[N80]

Mystery solved! It is a citron melon. A citron is a citrus fruit that grows on a tree. A citron melon is an entirely different thing but that is definitely what it is. Thanks guys!

Citron melon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I now have to admit that I feel bad about doubting my dad. He has early alzhiemers and when we looked up 'citron' and found out it was citrus fruit, I totally dismissed it. Anyway, I never told him that I thought he was wrong but I am certainly going to tell him today that he was exactly right!

 

[Tororider]

Glad the mystery is solved. Now the question is why was it in your food plot mix? Apparently if it has been sitting there uneaten someone needs to tell the animals what they are supposed to eat.

 

[Bird]

Glad the mystery is solved, and glad your dad got it right, too. My dad had Alzheimer's the last 5 or 6 years of his life. And to the best of my memory, I've never seen or heard of a citron melon before. I looked at a recipe on the Internet and wonder if the preserves aren't similar to the watermelon rind preserves my mother used to make.

 

[N80]

Don't know why it was in the food plot mix but nothing has messed with these at all ...... except me. The article I read says that they now grow wild in some southern states.

Bird I have no idea why Dad had heard of them either. He's always gardened, and been an outdoor type so he must have encountered them somehwere.

There are still 4 or 5 melons in the field but so far there is nothing about these things that tempts me to make preserves out of them. I think they will most likely end up as targets.

 

[scgargoyle]

Watermelons will cross with cucumbers- maybe your seeds are the results of that. You're gonna need bigger pickle jars....

 

[RobJ]

We have patches of those around the weekend place. Get rid of them quickly. They will come back and come back and come back. More and more each time.