Our best bittergourd harvest – such a shame that almost half of them were past their prime! I plucked the yellow fruits as well so that the plants carry on fruiting. Once a plant has a fruit that goes to seed on the vine, it tends to think its job is done and dies off.

We’ve just had a couple of impressive mini bittergourd harvests. Between the pair of vines, on the best day, we harvested over 20 fruits. What dampened the happiness was that some of those sneaky fruits had hidden themselves so well that we completely missed them until it was past time to pluck them.

I figured out that the best way to search for the fruits is to stick your hand in among the leaves and just wave it around a bit. If you hit something solid, it’s a fruit dangling there in the mass of leaves. The only problem with this is that there are a few hairy caterpillars on the plants right now, and I’m afraid of getting stung by them. The solution? Use something inanimate like a stick or spade instead. We really don’t like the fruits going to waste any more than they already have.

This is currently my favourite way to eat bittergourd – lightly coated in flour and fried until it’s crispy.

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