Over the years I have read many enjoyable posts from this forum. I never thought to register until now because I rarely register for any forum. However, this time I really thought I HAD to register just so I could post this. Safety is so important for us all. We all want to be safe. Our government is interested in safety too--its own safety and that includes "covering its butt." For years many things that were safe are now no longer safe. They say we can't pickle and can eggs. They say we can't have a breakfast with runny yolks anymore--at home or in a restaurant, even though I do it daily in my own home. They say we can't defrost our meat on the counter. They say we can't drink cider made from apples that have fallen on the ground, even though people have done so for centures. They say, they say, and they say.... Sometimes "they" say it because they're covering their butts; they don't want a law suit. Sometimes they say it because there are a lot of dumb people out there who would follow filthy procedures and endanger their own lives. Sometimes they say it because more and more we are encouraged to do nothing to sustain ourselves foodwise--from growing, to butchering, to cooking, to canning, etc.--so that we will all be dependent on the food companies and their processed garbage and exorbitant prices. So many people don't even know how to cook today, and we're told that just about everything we cook or make is unsafe now. It's no wonder that our minds and bodies are so impoverished. I have been home canning for many, many years, and everything I have ever canned has been completely safe. It seems I have been unable to kill anyone after all. One young whipper snapper with a "degree" in some sort of food fetish once told me I was playing Russian Roulet and that someday I would pay. I haven't paid yet. I think about her often. I'll bet at this point what she says more than anything else is, "Would you like fries with that?" I am not afraid of my canned foods. I use a boiling water bath canner and a pressure canner as needed. I follow clean and safe procedures. I am not afraid of canned pickled eggs, or my water bath salsa, or my half-vinegar half-water dilly beans. I just can't seem to kill myself no matter how hard I try. I'm grateful for this topic. I'm grateful for the author's bravery and website, which I have been on multiple times, and I am grateful for his recipe. I am not afraid at all. I especially like Matt Haynes post above. He has hit the nail on the head. So many people are running around fearing that the sky is falling, the sky is falling! The media has us all by throat every night as we breathlessly watch terrible things and they tell us we may be next. Everything is hyped to the max, everything is of the utmost urgency, and the public is in a state of constant heightened arousal and fear. It's to the point where some people are even afraid to leave their house. And on...

If a cantelope has a lot of white next to the rind...it's not ripe. I have a little bit left of the most wonderful melon....orange right to the tough rind. I can't find any flavor to water melon rind....unless you make watermelon pickles....and then it absorbs that wonderful sweet/sour spicy flavor!...I must make some this summer! It hurts me to toss watermelon rind, but if the melon is good and ripe, there's not much left on the skin....and I rarely have anything left of a musk melon or a honey dew but the skin.

Good info and I'm intrigued by Salted Watermelon Jelly. I'm growing a couple of the seedless varieties this year so will give it a try. Recipe? Dave

I've only done lacto-fermented pickles and refrigerator pickles. I've eaten store-bought kinds as well. Here are my preferences: Chile sauce (lacto-fermented, with vinegar added; cooked before fermentation; add probiotics before fermentation, after it cools sufficiently from cooking, but while it's still very warm) Radishes (lacto-fermented, without vinegar added; they turn pink/red inside) Peppers (with cardamom added; probably any kind of pepper pickle, almost) Sauerkraut (never made it, but I like it; it's pickled cabbage, lacto-fermented) Sempervivum (I think tectorum; lacto-fermented, without vinegar added) Carrots (lacto-fermented without vinegar added) Some of those I tried with/without vinegar I haven't tried the other way. I also like to use the brine from previously lacto-fermented stuff to make refrigerator pickles out of cheese strips. I'm not a fan of lacto-fermented large zucchini with vinegar added, although I like raw zucchini. I'm not fond of store-bought pickled cactus pad strips, but I like unpickled ones in stir fry. I like dill pickles, but I don't like sweet pickles that much (sweet pickles are okay in very small amounts). I like to use left-over dill pickle brine from store-bought pickles to refrigerator pickle stuff. I haven't historically added a lot to flavor my pickles (although I might prefer it). I want to lacto-ferment Jerusalem artichokes (and try adding some to other ferments, to speed the process).