When the bitter gourd (ampalaya) sprouted at the corner of our small plot of land, we were surprised. In that corner, we throw kitchen biodegradable stuff and the bitter gourd must have been one tough veggie to have started to grow.

I was following its growth for the first couple of weekends, coaxing it to climb the nearby coffee tree. Soon my mother-in-law had strategically placed some wires to help it along. I saw the stage where the small, yellow flowers were turning into the vegetable.


I was not able to check it out for one weekend and so I was truly surprised when I was told that they were already able to harvest two good-sized ampalaya and had it for dinner! We initially thought these were the baby bitter gourds but they were actually the regular ones. Nice!

Last weekend, I was able to see the plant. It's growing rather well! And the leaves are even bigger than the regular ones. A couple of gourds were healthily growing along.

I was amazed. I was actually spotted by the neighbor just standing there, staring at the growth. She commented on how the ampalaya was nicely growing along. They also tried to plant this, but did not have much success.

Just standing there, looking at the plant, made me realize how amazing the packaging of these veggies are. You pick the fruit, throw the stuff that's not edible, and these things return to the soil, and the seeds even grow. No wastage. How incredible is that!

Our next experiment: plant baby eggplants! I bought these from the local market. The seller said I should just have these dried, harvest the seeds, and plant them. But my mother-in-law said that these were not yet ripe when picked, so the seeds are useless. But still, I took some to Manila and have it dried there for experiment purposes.

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cross-posted at baguio-city.net