The small haul this weekend – a mini snake gourd that was cooked before I could add it to this group shot, the first cucumber from our short Thai variety, and a few mini bittergourds.

I truly enjoy harvesting what we grow in our garden, even if we sometimes spot them a little late – like the cucumber in this shot. Maybe we’re over-expectant, but we like to wait until we’re sure the cucumbers have grown to their full size. The thing is, cucumbers seem to ripen in a flash, so a fruit that was still greenish yesterday will suddenly be too yellow and old today. I’ll learn, I hope, soon, not to keep putting off the harvest. This is from our short Thai cucumber vine.

The mini bittergourds – that now have to be differentiated since we finally have a big bittergourd plant – have also been fruiting steadily. This harvest, though, was unusual because of the two bigger fruits. The smaller fruit is what we normally get, but maybe the plant senses it has a bigger “cousin” in the vicinity and is trying to show off.

I feel a little bad for the mini snake gourd that we harvested and ate before putting it in the harvest group shot, so here it is while it was still growing last week:

As usual, our mini snake gourd plant is growing voraciously. It sprouted wild while the original plant was still alive, and I kept part of the old vine – dried now - on the trellis to be a climbing support for the new plant. It was a thick vine, wasn’t it?

Unfortunately, our Australian okra plants seem to have aged, so okra season is over for now. But, there are still occasional long beans and bangkwang to look forward to. I have to sow more seeds of other veggies soon!

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