Spicy Watermelon Rind Pickles

in a zero waste effort,

I had to find a use other than compost for the leftover watermelon rinds, after we ate an out of season watermelon (in February). 

I did some googling and found a lot of recipes for sweet, watermelon rind pickles and one for dilly, salty pickles. 

So I based most of my recipe on Allison's, but I used my basic brine and added black peppercorns and Serrano peppers. 

My basic brine is 1 cup of water, 1 cup of distilled white vinegar, and 1 tablespoon of pickling/canning salt. (I use Morton's.) The brine is at a gentle boil when I fill the jars, which I preheat in the oven at 200F. 

As you can see in my photos, I did not trim off the green part of the rind. This ended up being a happy accident. I made a batch of these pickles back in February and didn't realize that I'd forgotten about the green rind until the jars were sealed... Oops. 

Fast forward 2 months and some friends were over raiding my pantry for pickles after a few cocktails. They opened a jar and the green part had turned soft (like the skin of a cucumber) and had taken on the flavor profile of the briney goodness. Everyone at work raved over these pickles too, so I definitely decided to make second batch. 

It's Memorial Day weekend and since we had a watermelon, I decided to made another batch. We'll see if they're as good as the first in a month or two.