My watermelon patch turned out just great!

I have a bunch of 20# to 30# melons. Do you know how many people it takes to eat a melon that size?

How about a dozen melons that size?

So -

The thought occurred to me. Why not make watermelon syrup? Many individuals take sap from a maple tree, boil it down and make maple syrup. Would it not be possible to boil down watermelon juice and make watermelon syrup?

And so I asked Google about that and he said that the United States Commissioner of Agriculture's Report for 1876 states that one group of California farmers and promoters actually formed a corporation (the California Sugar Manufacturing Company) for that purpose. And the company — after conducting extensive preliminary experiments which showed that the plan was indeed feasible — set up a factory complete with imported German machinery at Isleton, in the Sacramento/San Joaquin River delta region.

Furthermore, watermelon juice is about 7% sugar while maple sap is only about 3%. This means that it takes far less boiling to make watermelon syrup than maple syrup.

Today I borrowed my neighbors cider press and hooked up an outdoor stove to boil down watermelon juice into watermelon syrup. Tomorrow I hope to squeeze the juice out of some melons and start boiling and next week end it will be waffles with watermelon syrup!!

Maybe I should get someone to help me make a "You Tube" of the process.

Best wishes,

dhm