pie melon n
1 also apple-pie melon: Any of var watermelons bearing a fruit that is unpalatable raw, but used to make pie-filling or preserves or as feed for stock. [The name pie melon was perh coined in Australia, where it is found, applied to what is evidently the same watermelon variety as in the early quots below, as early as 1849.] chiefly Sth, S Midl, SW See Map old-fash Also called citron melon n 3, pine melon n, stock melon n
1853 Royal Hawaiian Ag. Soc. Trans. 1.4.40, We cannot close our report without mentioning, with admiration, the Pie Melon Preserve, presented by Mrs. John Ladd. 1857 Amer. Cotton Planter & Soil Sth. 1.25 ceAL, I send you . . two “Pie Melons,” which will be an acquisition to our section, as a substitute for apples. . . Some naval officers brought the seed from the Sandwhich [sic] Islands. . . Their Culture.—It is the same as that of watermelons, except that they should be planted in hills, twenty feet apart. . . Planter. Ibid 1.51, The New Apple-Pie Melon.—We have tried the melons sent us by our friend “Planter,” . . and find them all, and more than he claims for them. 1860 MI State Ag. Soc. Trans. for 1858 10.623, Best pie melon, H.T. Young. 1863 Burr Field & Garden 197, California Pie-melon. Plant running,—the foliage and general habit resembling the Common Water-melon . . ; fruit oblong, very large, measuring sixteen inches and upwards in length, and from eight to ten inches in diameter; skin yellowish-green, often marbled with different shades of light-green or pea-green; flesh white, succulent, somewhat tender, but very unpalatable, or with a squash-like flavor, in its crude state. 1867 De Voe Market Asst. 382 NYC, Apple-pie water-melon.—This Japan species of melon is but lately introduced here, and appears, with the aid of a little lemon-juice, to make excellent apple-pie. . . It will keep quite well all winter. 1888 Hillebrand Flora Hawaiian Is. 134, To the latter species [=Citrullus Citrullus] has to be referred as a variety the much esteemed Pie-melon. 1899 Amer. Kitchen Mag. 10.139 FL, We have found that the juice of the citron (called also “pie melon” in Florida) will readily convert these juices into jellies. 1901 Seymour Daily Democrat (IN) 14 Feb 2/2 OK, [Letter:] The best thing we have found for cattle and hogs is Oklahoma stock melons. . . These melons are splendid when cooked and taste something like apples. They make nice pies and are called by some apple-pie melons. 1919 Hoard’s Dairyman 57.506 CA, [Letter:] This year I shall plant a large acreage of pie melons. There are two varieties, the small citron or preserving melon and the stock melon. 1925 Fairhope Courier (AL) [14 Aug 5]/5, Anton Aranza . . left with the Courier a melon which has attracted a great deal of attention. It has all the appearances of a watermelon and weighs 56 pounds, but he says it is a pie or stock melon. 1939 Stillwater Gaz. (OK) 24 Feb 1/1, Variations are made with apples, pared and chopped, or with pineapple. Sometimes citron, not the candied citron you by [sic] for fruit cakes, but the pie-melon variety that grow volunteer on so many farms. 1966–70 DARE (Qu. I26, . . Kinds of melons) Infs AR51, KS6, KY56, 66, SC29, Pie melon(s); CA36, Pie melon—a citron, really; NC87, Pie melon—like a small watermelon—light green or striped, yellow inside, good only for cooking and pies; OK18, Pie melon—good only for preserves; SC22, Pie melon—like a small watermelon, but they’re too hard to cut or eat, so they’re fed to hogs; TX11, Pie melon—grows wild; TX42, Pie melon—livestock eat them; make preserves out of them; TX67, Pie melon—not grown anymore. [All Infs old] 1969 Pampa Daily News (TX) 9 Mar 5/1, Troy Ritter . . might like to try another vegetable crop, once real important around here. Piemelons! Ever hear of pie melons? They are greenish, great big, and fine for hog feed (and preserves) after being cut with a sharp-bitted axe! 1978 Economic Botany 32.182 eTX, Many plant species are becoming endangered, and primitive crops are disappearing every year. A good example in east Texas is the disappearance of two wild melons that grew in upland cotton patches. One was a small round “guinea melon.” . . The other was referred to as “pie melon,” because it served as a poor substitute for fruit in making pies. Neither of these plants have been seen for about 40 years. 1986 Pederson LAGS Concordance, 1 inf, cAL, Pie melon = citron melon, not very sweet; 1 inf, seAL, Pie melon; 1 inf, seAL, Pie melon = pumpkin [melon]; 1 inf, seAL, Pie melon—small watermelon; 1 inf, csAL, Pie melons—mother made preserves of them—hard; 1 inf, csAL, Pie melons—look like watermelons, no good, hard; 1 inf, nwAL, Pie melon—similar to watermelon, not edible; 1 inf, ceFL, Pie melon—large, 40–50 pounds, open with hatchet; 1 inf, nwFL, Pie melons—make pies out of them; 1 inf, seGA, Pie melon—smaller than pumpkin, used in pies; 1 inf, csLA, Pie melon—a kind of melon you make a pie from; 1 inf, cwLA, Pie melons; 1 inf, cMS, Pie melon—green skin, meat, used in pies; 1 inf, ceMS, Pie melon—real good but there ain’t much to it; 1 inf, seMS, Pie melon—looks just like a little watermelon; 1 inf, seMS, Pie melon—round, white; 1 inf, csMS, Pie melon; 1 inf, swMS, Pie melon—very hard, looks like watermelon; 1 inf, swTN, Pie melon = cue melon—for preserves; 1 inf, cTX, Pie melon; 1 inf, csTX, Pie melon—tough skin. [15 of 21 infs old]
2 Any of var other plants of the family Cucurbitaceae, as a variety of winter squash n or melon (Cucumis melo), used to make pie-filling.
1957 Battaglia Resp. to PADS 20eMD (Kinds of pumpkins that grow in your neighborhood) Pie melons, cow pumpkin. 2007 in 2024 DARE File—Internet MD, Years ago, when they were living on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, one of their neighbors gave my parents seeds of a winter squash known as pie melon. They grew them for several years and Mom would make a pie similar to pumpkin pie or sweet potato pie. According to Mom they had a long neck and a fat body. The flesh was a lighter orange than a canteloupe/muskmelon and the seeds were in a cavity in the center instead of dispersed through the flesh like a watermelon. The skin was solid green although she knew of varieties that were striped. 2024 DARE File—Internet, Mother Mary’s Pie Melon. . . Donated to Seed Savers Exchange in 1997 by a Minnesota family who grew it for at least three generations since circa 1914. Named after the donor’s mother who used equal amounts of melons and apples in pie. Highly productive, early maturing fruit is small, yellow, and round with white flesh. [DARE Ed: This is a variety of Cucumis melo.]
Etymological Supplement:
1849 Sidney’s Emigrant’s Journal 1.268/2, Some of the farmers sow two or three acres of what they call the pie melon; they use them instead of apples for pies and puddings, and very good they are: they will keep all winter like a potato; some of them weighs as much as twenty pounds.
< https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101074884758&seq=284>