Keli Kheli Melon

I picked the first melon on these vines early, while the fruit was still green. It made amazing pickles. The skin is thin and edible, the unripe flesh lightly sour and firm. One melon is just about the right size for a quart jar of pickles. We let the next melons ripen, and the texture got a bit mealy, the sour and the musk increased, but not the sweetness. or at least not enough to make it a pleasant table fruit. This melon is a pass when it ripens, but an excellent, easy pickling melon. Will plant next year.

I recommend these absolutely. Would I grow them again? No. This melon is the kind of thing you grow for the "here, man, taste this!" category. Ripe, the Keli Kheli melon has an aroma that touches overripe cantaloupe with a tinge of anaerobic compost pile and the flesh is strangely oily and astringent. One cool feature is the almost perfect symmetrical ring of holes exuding melon juice. I wanted to like them so bad. They were insanely productive in a close-spaced raised bed. When I pulled the plant there were a dozen underripe guys hanging out. After four I just couldn't eat them at all. I still recommend you grow Keli Kheli melons. Maybe you'll find a cool way to use them that inspires us all!