bitter gourd

 2 bitter gourds growing beside the Pandan leaves. I have trim down the pandan plant. Reduce the territories perimeter. Hope it does not mind.

Bitter gourd transplanted to the ground on weekend.

Hope they grow well and produce enough harvest for me!

small bitter gourd

This is my first time to have handful of harvest from bitter gourd plant! I never have luck with them in the past. The plant die after start flowering or half way thru fruiting time.

This time around I can harvest many of them! they grow well and I can say that every week my menu shall have bitter gourd. I share with family too! That's a blessing!

This is where they are growing! Previously this bed was used for pak choy.

The bitter gourd plant has a beautiful foliage and yellow cute flowers! I must admit that I just realise it!

The tendril hold on everything to keep growing.

The stone is to big for them to tie up!

bitter gourd

Bitter gourd or peria katak is my favourite especially when it's fried with salt, turmeric and chilli powder. I remember learning to eat them while young. My mum will fry them to minimize the bitter taste . It's good way of eating bitter gourd for children!

Health benefits of Bitter gourd ( from nutrition-and-you.com)

The vegetable is very low in calories, providing just 17 calories per 100g. Nevertheless, its pods are rich in phytonutrients like dietary fiber, minerals, vitamins and anti-oxidants.

Bitter melon notably contains phyto-nutrient, polypeptide-P; a plant insulin known to lower blood sugar levels. In addition, it composes hypoglycemic agent called charantin. Charantin increases glucose uptake and glycogen synthesis in the cells of liver, muscle and adipose tissue. Together, these compounds are thought to be responsible for reduction of blood sugar levels in the treatment of type-2 diabetes.

Fresh pods are an excellent source of folates, contain about 72 µg/100g (Provides 18% of RDA). Folate helps reduce the incidence of neural tube defects in the newborns when taken by mothers during early pregnancy.

Fresh bitter melon is an excellent source of vitamin-C (100 g of raw pod provides 84 mg or about 140% of RDI). Vitamin-C, one of the powerful natural antioxidants, helps the body scavenge deleterious free radicals one of the reasons for cancer development.

It is an excellent source of health benefiting flavonoids such as ß-carotene, α-carotene, lutein, and zea-xanthin. It also contains a good amount of vitamin A. Together; these compounds help act as protective scavengers against oxygen-derived free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS) that play a role in aging, cancers and various disease processes.

Bitter melon stimulates easy digestion and peristalsis of food through the bowel until it is excreted from the body. Thus, helps in relieving indigestion and constipation problems.

In addition, the vegetable is an also good source of niacin (vitamin B-3), pantothenic acid (vitamin B-5), pyridoxine (vitamin B-6) and minerals such as iron, zinc, potassium, manganese and magnesium.

New Year resolution.....!

While young, in school my teacher will ask us to write about our new year resolution every year without fail! We would write a long list and even share between each others! I think most of us do not really follow the resolution but give the list to the teacher to impress them only! hahhaha,.....

But this habit of writing resolution continues until now! Nowadays I don't write or think a long list but a few which I really would like to follow!

1) I have minimize the usage of pesticide last year. I would like to continue it this year as much as possible!
2) I want to plant more vegetables in the vegetable bed which is currently contain weeds. At least harvest as much as possible my own vegetables!

 
3) maintain back all my flowering plants that I have left last year

4) To spent more time in the garden, get my hand dirty!

5) I have lost a lot of plants last year like zinnia, plumbago,my pink hibiscus, marigold, balsam, etc! I hope I will handle my plants more carefully even though they are abundance this year!

So How about you? Any new year resolution for 2014?

Harvest of weekend!

I love weekend! I think every working people love weekend!

I love weekend for few reasons and one of it, is for harvesting time. Weekend is my only time I focus in the garden. I do weeding, tend the plant, even find all the pest and the damage done by them! I harvest most of my vegetables for cooking too!
My last angle loofah. The plant is almost dead. I just sow the new seeds yesterday!

The chillies. We call them 'cili padi' in Malay!

Bitter gourd. I harvested 6 of them altogether! The best harvest so far! 2 already fried on Sunday!

Pak Choy

Those are my small harvest for daphnesdandelions harvest day! For more information on who is harvesting what all around the world , visit her website!

bitter gourd

These bitter gourd vines germinated from the seeds I throw in compost area. I transfer them to vegetable bed and gave some support. By luck they have grown nicely.

The bitter gourd have produce few fruits for now. I use to slice them thin and soak it in the mixture of salt, turmeric and chili powder. After half and hour I will fry them. They are very crispy and tasty even though the bitter taste is still available.

How you cook your bitter gourd?

The beauty in Bitter gourd

I seldom have time to really sit and see my plants in detail. Most of them time that I have, is only time to water them or doing weeding.

When i think of beauty in plants, I always go for flowering plants but yesterday while looking out for caterpillar I realize that vegetables do have a beauty in them.

Look at the bitter gourd leaves, flower, tendril and fruits! Each have art in them! Don't you agree with me?

Bitter gourd at last!

Bitter gourd is a tropical and subtropical vine of the family Cucurbitaceae, which is among the most bitter of all fruits.

There are many varieties that differ substantially in the shape and bitterness of the fruit. The China phenotype is 20–30 cm long, oblong with bluntly tapering ends and pale green in color.The bitter melon more typical of India has a narrower shape with pointed ends, and a surface covered with jagged, triangular "teeth" and ridges.

almost reaching !!

There are many health benefit of bitter gourd that some drink the bitter juice!  It's believed that it has antiviral, antimalarial, anticancer properties. Besides it's cardioprotective too!

 

My bitter gourd have started to bear fruits. Not many but enough for a meal!

Bitter Gourd!

Finally my grown up bitter gourd produce 2nd fruit! There are many male flowers on the vine. I wrap it with paper to protect it from monkey! Do you wonder if monkey eat bitter gourd? I don't think so but the 1st fruit was plucked by them! I think they tasted and throw it somewhere due to the bitter taste. So this time, i try to protect my single fruit! The plant is yellowing so this might be my last harvest! 

ANYWAY, Happy Tamil New Year to All Indian Garden Bloggers!

 

Bitter gourd learning.....

Two bitter gourds are learning to climb! I feel it's still their tender stage. The 2nd batch have many male flower but very little gourd for me....so i decided to restart in different bed and compare their growth!

Bitter gourd flowers!

This is my 2nd attempt with bitter gourd. The first attempt was with 2 unhealthy seedlings which were eaten up by caterpillars!

The plant have started flowering but all are male flowers. I'm waiting patiently for the female flowers.... Due to my busy work schedule, my garden is not well taken care off. Monkeys are partying at the long beans vines and have pull and tear my corn ears! I have to get back to the garden soon!