My ally Craig Hepworth haswritten an excellent post on the edible uses of nursing bottle gourd .
Did you do it they were a well edible ? I did n’t !
“ Here in Florida , the calendar month of June through September extend an idealistic examination ground for how well veggie can put up hot , muggy weather . Many vernacular veggie struggle in the sauna - like condition , but we ’re line up that Lageneria siceria produces food here all summertime like a champion .
A member of the squash family , Lagenaria is an aggressively spreading vine , and is comfortably grown on a trellis . Fruits harvest at the right stagecoach for edibility have a soft , pleasant taste , intermediate between cucumber and zucchini / zucchini . The fruit are great cooked or raw . Reportedly they are extremely democratic in Indian cooking . I ’ve tried using the fruits in peach – they misrepresent rapidly , so I fox a crowd of chunk into a soup or dope of beans for the last few bit of cookery , where they taste pleasant and filling .
Lagenaria fruits are not bad raw . They can be shorten into veg reefer , sliced into salads , or cut into “ zoodles ” , the raw vegetable noodles that have late become pop as a tasty yet low calorie dish .
They ’re also good in the altogether . If you harvest them young enough , the skin is soft and edible . Left on the vine a little longer , the skin bulge to toughen , and I find that it ’s good to strip down them . slice into veggie sticks , they are an ideal low - calorie collation to keep on hand in the refrigerator when you get an urge to nibble . They ’re great miscellaneous into a salad , and I have used them all on their own ( with dressing ) to make a cucumber salad . you could also use Lagenaria fruit to make excellent “ zoodles ” , the raw zucchini noodles that have become popular as a depressed - calorie principal course for the wellness conscious . If you let Lagenaria fruits stick on the vine past the eatable stage , they develop a hard carapace , and finally dry out out into a hollow gourd that can be used as a container . Some of the common name calling for the specie reflect this exercise , like bottle gourd , bird house gourd , and calabash ( not to be confused with the calabash tree , Crescentia cujete , which also make heavily - shelled fruits that are used for containers ) .
There are numerous breeds of Lagenaria , with varying shapes … ”
Click here to read the rest .
Craig is a bright plant guy rope . He ’s the one that first introduced me to the incredible value ofD. alataas a staple crop in Florida . If you ’re not following his blog orInstagram account , I commend you do so .
