My vege garden is doing really well - too well. I planted two hills of
rockmelons and three of cucumbers. My neighbour gave me the cucumber
seedlings and I was in a huge rush at planting time so I just put them in.

Well to cut the story short the "cucumbers" are in fact rockmelons too. I
now have five hills of vines looking to take over the world, I estimate that
there are fifty to a hundred melons between golf ball and tennis ball size.
In a month or six weeks I will have more melons than I can eat or give away
to friends and neighbours.

To avoid international confusion:- (a) it is summer here (b) by rockmelon I
mean a sweet melon about 18 cm (7in) across, with a thick netted skin that
has rich aromatic orange flesh, that is wonderful to eat at the peak of
ripeness.

So how can I preserve melons? I have a bottling system (boiling water bath
type) and plenty of bottles, which is where the "cucumbers" were going to
end up, but I am unsure about the quality of bottled melons or the procedure
for doing it.

Is there a better way to preserve them that will produce a tasty edible
product? Will freezing or any other technique work?

David