Pumpkin/Watermellon Blossoms

[Quinn01]

So I realized the other day my mom is growing watermellon and pumpkins which has blossoms that are very very similar to squash blossoms.

Can I pick these and cook them like I would squash blossoms?

Thanks Guys!

[KissTC]

In short...Yes...But watch you don't get caught by your Mum.

How are you cooking them? I like them in crispy beer batter.

[Pete]

We used to eat pumpkin blossoms as kids, never heard of eating watermelon blossoms. Mom would dip them into milk, then flour and then fry them in bacon fat.

[Quinn01]

I would most deff. fry it. Isnt anything fried the best?

Thanks guys, and yeah ill have to sneak out there snip them off and then blame the **** racoons around here.

[siduri]

Fear not the wrath of your mother. Just pick the male blossoms which don;t make the fruit, and leave the female blossoms there (with the stamen) - you only need one male blossom on the plant to pollinate the females.

[Quinn01]

How do you tell which are male and which are female?

[siduri]

look up the blossoms in internet, look up stamen and that is the female flower, the one with the stamen. the other has the pistil (I think it's spelled like that, the pistol? can;t be - anyway, that's the male).

[stir it up]

I was taught that you ONLY want to cook the FEMALE blossoms for quality and taste.

It's easy to tell which is which, the female blossoms look like they have a tiny baby fruit just behind the flower, the male blossoms have a whole lotta nothing.

Make sure to leave enough to turn into pumpkins, they're good eatin' too.

[Quinn01]

So I sunk out there to snip some off.......Got cought red handed. My moms yelled at me and told me to "put the sissors DOWN, NOW!"

So next time.

Anyway is the stamen the thing you pluck out of the middle of the blossom itself right before you cook it? The beak like small thing thats inside the flower on the middle? Pollen?

Still interesting guys so keep it comming!

[tessa]

ya suppose to send you mum out on a coffee/shopping date berore you raid her garden dont ya know
that way you dont get caught

[Quinn01]

Haha yeah but if she came back and saw that it was all a scam and I got her good, shed be upset.

I mean this one time I took a rubberband and put it around the sprayer on the sink and aimed it at her and she turned the sink on and it sprayed her. She yelled but then we had a good laugh.

Plus the flowers started looking like death the day I went out there to cut them......