Archive : Paavai Bitter Gourd

We have been saving and growing paavai bitter gourd and saving seeds inside our sustainable green house for the past three years. We have huge demand for fresh bitter melons. Our CSA members are enjoying the first picks.

We harvested the last of the peppers, eggplants and bitter melons this week from the green house. Our hoop house doesn’t have any electricity or running water.  Most of the watering was done by collecting rain water. Last weekend’s cold snap killed these plants for good.  We were able to extend their life span by atleast a month. We also have only one layer of 6 mm plastic and our doors are not insulated properly.

The green house is still producing Bittermelons in September.   We are leaving all of them to go to seed. Next year, half of the green house will be planted with Pavai bittermelon.

We didn’t see this Paavai until it changed colours. It was hiding behind the Tomato plants. It is hard to miss them with these beautiful colours. Bitter gourd actually loses the bitterness when it ripens. Our farm manager Saulis enjoyed the fruit.  We have the seeds drying safely for the third planting. We have so far harvested over 12 bitter gourds(8 inches long) from just 4 vines.

These seeds are from Markham backyard. We already harvested 3 of them and had great reviews from our family cooks. Currently, each of these goes for $4 and being supplied through imports from South Asia. It is a popular item among Canadians of South Asians and Caribbean origins. We believe our Ontario grown Paavai Bitter Gourd is superior in quality and taste compared to the imports. We will tag one of this Paavai Bitter [Read More...]