It's funny how a smell or taste can bring back a flood of memories.
My mom's mom - my grandma - was always canning, pickling, freezing and "putting up" all kinds of foods. I lived for visits to her house where she'd feed me homemade pickles, fresh veggies from her garden, blueberries and figs and pecans - I could go on and on.
What I really loved, though were her pickles. I loved her sweet pickles - could eat a whole jar.
She would also make watermelon rind pickles and these were a delicacy I really loved - and it's something most people have either never heard of or tasted.
Yesterday I bought a big watermelon at the local grocery store - it was $4.99 - which is a good deal these days for sure. I cut it in half, gave half to my mom and cut the other half up and put it in the fridge.
Left on my counter was a small mountain of watermelon rinds. I was thinking how much my compost pile was going to appreciate the rinds, but then a memory came floating up and I raced to my computer to look up recipes for watermelon rind pickles.
A half hour later I had peeled and chopped up almost all of the rind - piling the unused portions in my compost pail. Following directions I soaked the rinds in salt water overnight.
It's a simple recipe: sugar, vinegar, cloves, cinnamon, and allspice.
The smell was intoxicating and not necessarily in a great way - as the vinegar kind of overtook my kitchen and probably most of the house.
The taste, however brought back memories - floods of them. Images of my grandma standing at the stove frying eggs, cooking ribs, collard greens, etc.
I'm sad because she doesn't cook anymore - hasn't really for years. After my papa passed away she kind of went downhill and now has full-blown dementia and Alzheimer's.
I'm glad I have my memories and the tastes of her cooking to remember and tell my kids about.
Now I'm just impatiently waiting for the pickles to be ready. One recipe said to let them sit for FIVE weeks, but I don't think that's how long we'll wait realistically.
I'm thinking tomorrow will be long enough!
