Today we’ll be growing Bitter Melon, also called bitter gourd from seed to harvest, exploring the interesting plants as we go, then harvesting the fruits at different stages before cooking and giving them a taste.
We’ll also discover the orange stage of these fruits including the red fleshy arils around the seeds.
These unique fruits which are also know as Balsam pear, Bitter squash, African cucumber, Ampalaya, Foo gwa, Mara or karavila, are a nutritious and unique vegetable used in many different dishes. They grow on a vine that does well in subtropical and tropical climates, but can also be grown during the Summer season of warm temperate climates.
They’re fun to grow and make for an interesting surprise in the garden that will provide you with a unique taste experience and nutritious food.
I hope you enjoy the journey of growing bitter melons from start to finish with me 🙂
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VIDEO SUGGESTIONS FOR YOU:
Growing & Tasting Some Of My Favourite Unusual Fruits – https://youtu.be/1u1DbPL8wzo
How To Grow Watermelons From Seed To Harvest – https://youtu.be/md0as5LQPHs
Growing A No-Dig Garden From Start to Finish – https://youtu.be/i3HfAuQut0E
Recipe link:
References:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sathis-Dinakaran/publication/363270946_A_MEDICINAL_POTENCY_OF_MOMORDICA_CHARANTIA/links/545e218b0cf27487b44ef843/A-medicinal-potency-of-Momordica-charantia.pdf
https://www.ias.ac.in/article/fulltext/jbsc/020/05/0657-0664
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314165572_Fatty_acid_and_carotenoid_composition_of_bitter_melon_Momordica_charantia_L_seed_arils_a_potentially_valuable_source_of_lycopene
http://www.esalq.usp.br/lepse/imgs/conteudo_thumb/Floral-Acoustics-Conspicuous-Echoes-of-a-Dish-Shaped-Leaf-Attract-Bat-Pollinators.pdf
https://www.phytojournal.com/archives/2018/vol7issue3S/PartH/SP-7-3-47-591.pdf
Books I’ve enjoyed and found helpful:
Grafting and Budding: A Practical Guide for Fruit and Nut Plants and Ornamentals
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The Food Forest Handbook: Design and Manage a Home-Scale Perennial Polyculture Garden https://amzn.to/3imbZHo
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Hi, I’m Kalem, and this channel features all sorts of unusual and exotic fruiting plants with tips of how to successfully grow them. I’m interested in all things gardening and love growing my own food and all types of edible plants.
I live on a 2 acre piece of land in New Zealand where we are turning a grass paddock into and abundant, edible paradise and food forest! So come along on this journey with me as I experiment with growing, and try to push the limits of what I can grow. I’ll share with you my successes and failures so hopefully you’ll learn from them and have a go yourself! Come learn with me and Subscribe to join this awesome community 🙂
0:00 Intro
0:37 Starting the seeds
1:08 Planting seedlings & building trellis
3:28 Giving seaweed fertilizer
3:48 Plant growth & flowers
6:01 Baby bitter melons forming
6:23 Harvesting bitter melons
7:01 Cooking with bitter melon
8:41 Taste test
9:34 Orange fruits and red arils
11:26 Traditional medicine
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20 Comments
Hey guys, thanks for watching! To see me grow some more cool fruits, check out this video here 🙂 https://youtu.be/1u1DbPL8wzo
Hope you're all doing well.
-Kalem
THIS would have been a good video to be shirtless in! LOL jk, I love all of your videos. I truly do! But the way you filmed and edited this one is by far my favorite! Maybe try it in something sweet like a teriyaki or orange sauce stir fry? That might help counter some of the bitter too. Being that its an acquired taste that you dont love, but dont hate, is it something you think youll grow again next year?
Have you tried growing a dragon fruit? I was curious how it would turn out from a grocery store fruit.
wow, first time on your channel,
in our country we usually get white seeds one.. but today got few with red seeds and kind of almost sticky .. is it edible ? i hope its not poisonous?
My god the cursed fruit lol. As a child I really didn't like eatting it as an adult still but I will eat it a bit more.
My mom cuts it in half, not the long way, take out the inside, stuff it with ground pork or turkey, spices and herbs then steam it.
Hello couple thing you can add after the veg is cooked to take away the bitterness lemon juice and little bit of suger/ stevia.
dont you think its aazing how tiny plants become maddibe in just a few months
what a stud!
Cool
That good for the blood brother
Hello, I just found your channel today. I'm really interested in growing fruit from seeds and would like to copy what you have done but I am in france 900m above sea level so we have long snowy winters, about 2/3 full months of snow, and then we have really hot summers… so I'd like to know if it would work if I tried to grow tropical fruit here? I have 2 old fruit trees in my garden, apple and quince… also lots of berry plants, but I haven't seen anyone around here growing tropical fruit. not sure it would work. thanks for any advice.
Very interesting video. We have a way smaller (cundeamor) version in Puerto Rico. I remember sucking on the sweet seeds of the ripe fruit as a child.
This vegetable are not mean to eat in raw. it need to be cook with the right method and right seasoning to make it delicious.
That variety is not even bitter… that much. There's another variety small more round-ish oval-shaped.. . Just slightly bigger than Quayle egg.. 3X the biterness… yum.. my mouth watering just thinking about it.
You can eat it raw as a salad too.. slice thinly after (throwing the centre n sseds), with onion slice/chop, red chillies mildly burn in fire, dice a bit of ginger and certain seed/spice chia and r sesameand of course salt. 😋
Nice video, but you don’t eat it on its own, eat with pitta bread. Use lots of onion with it and fresh tomatoes while cooking, it will tone down the bitterness. All the best 👍
One of my favorites. My kids like them too. Very good for you. We love them in any pork dish. I saute some pork with lots of garlic, onion and eggplant. I like to blanch the bittermelon in a separate pot of boiling water for about ten minutes or until tender. Drain the water, and add it to the pan of pork and eggplants. I’d even go as far as saying that this simple dish is my top 3 all time foods👍🏼😋😋 So ono with hot rice.
Also the young shoots of the vines can be eaten also. Add to soups. Love them🙏🏼
I don't like bitter melon when I was young. However, when it keeps appearing on the dinner table coz the adults like them, I get used to the bitter taste and love it now. Its a very common vege in China. We can stuff, fry, soup and stew them.
Hi brother. If you add lots of onion , it get sweeter and very tasty. I love the seeds cooked together. I eat with rice or tortillas
They are really cool-looking Kalem, I'm sure there are some good recipes out there for it. I noticed you have some banana plants growing in the background, I would love to see a video about them 😉