Bitter Melon

[Summer 2019 – Columbus, OH]

Although it was not a super success, our very first experience of growing bitter melon was exciting. We were a little bit late to plant bitter melon on our plot, but anyhow we were lucky enough to taste homegrown bitter melon just before the end of the season. Therefore it is worth to start seedlings indoors a few weeks before the growing season.

Despite its bitterness, it is widely used in South Asian cuisines as a green vegetable. Not only the fruit, in some Indian and Filipino recipes, they even use bitter melon leaves.

According to traditional Ayurveda medicine, bitter melon is considered as a treatment for diabetics.