I caved to the peer pressure and got on the mouse melon, (aka:cucamelon) wagon last Spring. I wanted a living tee-pee and used the cucamelon vine to create one. It turned out awesome! I loved it! You can see and read about it here.
The baby cucumbers that look like baby watermelon were quite tasty as refrigerator pickles and a tangy little novel gift for friends, but I was not totally sold on the plant. If I could actually can the pickles I may have rated them with more stars but in the end, yes, novel, and tasty enough, but doubted I would commit the space for them next year. Planned on growing my tee-pee again, but figured I would use the sweet pea or maybe even a green bean. As the summer sizzled along I completely lost interest in my cucamelon tee-pee.
This morning I was outside talking to the chickens when I happened to take notice of the mangled up mess the cucamelon tee-pee has become. Although the sunflowers that were growing right beside my tee-pee are long gone, the deep green tee-pee is still thriving despite the fact I orphaned it about mid July due to more cucamelons than I could pickle without a canner and all the leaf footed beetles that were inhabiting the vines as well as the sunflowers. Insects rarely bother me, but those things are big, they fly, and they do not seem to be afraid of anything. I quit battling them and gave them the cucamelon vines.
The cucamelons now are a bit bigger than they were in the summer, and their stripes are more yellowish white instead of greenish yellow. I plucked one off the vine, because I can since I do not use pesticides nor herbicides on my plants in any way. Oh Y'all! We are in a whole new league of cucamelons right here! Wow! So much better! So, so, so much better!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTI_00GLTfs
Now if I could just figure out what to do with all those hundreds of cucamelons laying on the ground. I guess I should have checked these babies way before now. Oh well.
So the moral of the story is just because something starts out "eh" doesn't mean it will be "eh" it's entire life. Be patient, and don't give up. Everything has a season and its season may not be your season. You are welcome for the storehouse of wisdom. *wink
Enjoy Fall Y'all!
~Paula Jean
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