When I cook Chinese bitter melon, I've found the key is brining them before cooking. Let it soak in very salty water at least a couple hours. Chop it small so that the bitterness leeches out faster. It can actually help lower blood sugar.
I loved this video, super I had a misfortune, I was diagnosed with ovariian cancedr. I also created a channel and am tryingG to move in that direction, but so far not very successful(4
Hi Mark, regarding the bitterguard, you can slice the fruit in circles and deep fry those circles in oil. Then they become crunchi. You can add fresh onions and lime juice, and make a fresh salad like mix with those crunchy bitterguard pieces. This is the best way to overcome bitterness. Plus you can preserve the deep fried pieces in a bottle. This receipi is from Sri Lanka where I come from, which my mother used to make. Really healthy for your blood sugar control. Best!. Anu
I have one part in my garden, that also tends to get kind of boggy and slippery, so I laid out some rubber horse mats with lots of holes, so within a year it was grown in and made the area more stable and easier to walk over. Even mowing the lawn in this spot is possible.:)
I just remembered one of the many reasons I love your channel. I'm in the Northern hemisphere and i was just going through my seed inventory for February planting when you popped up in my feed wearing shorts and cracking Santa jokes😂😂❤
I loved this video, super I had a misfortune, I was diagnossed with ovariian cancedr. I also created a channel and am trying to move in that direction, but so far not very successful(
@@marthacancerng As a CA survivor, keep the spirit up. Keep moving and live your life. You might have to cut back a little because you are so darn tired or sometimes a bit sick. Good luck on your journey, eat well no matter what.
I saw a video recently about creating long term woodchip compost in your garden pathways, which has the added benefit of giving you something to walk on instead of muddy ground. every few years you just dig up all the broken down wood chips and use them in the garden and replace with new chips, might be something to look into to solve your muddy path issue
@MargaretFinnell i don't usually dig mine up either but it was great to do so when I doubled the size of my market gardens across an area of hard pan clay, i raked the top layer of big chips back and took the under layer and formed my new beds from that as a base with a compost topper. Then I just put a new 6-8" layer of chips down on the pathways I took from. Those beds only took a year to look as good as the ones I started from scratch just layering compost on for 3 years. I also found in a pinch if I'm grabbing volunteers to pot up and move from the main rows that I just dig down into the path a bit to fill a pot and pop it in.
@@MK-ti2oo My main problem is getting the wood-chips. I am very allergic to poison oak/ivy so I really have to be careful on asking for a load of chips if I see a crew cutting. This working full-time also limits what I can do. The only volunteers that I have gotten lately are weeds.
If you just put some shade cloth up you can grow stuff like bok choy and salad greens quite easily through out summer too. They just won’t grow big but still tasty.
Thanks for showing a realistic sub-tropical food garden in summer! We too have the fabulous nut grass and vines and other summer weeds have have taken over most of the beds… which we are letting rest is a good way to put it! Thanks for putting my mind at ease that I’m not vigilant enough in this SEQ summer… but normal!
Bitter Melon. Mark, dehydrate it, powder it and turn it into capsules. Bitter melon is fantastic for getting rid of inflammation in the body. 4 - 6 capsules per day helped me get rid of pain associated with inflammation. I’m going to grow bitter melon for this exact purpose.
I'm growing it right now on a trellis, it's radiated maybe 1.5 metres. South east asians seem to love it and prize it. When I went to Thailand they were very proud of their weedy vine which pales into insignificance compared to mine. I was planning on fermenting mine if it's unusable fresh.
Ginger, Turmeric, Potatoes, Sweet potato, Herbs. Another one that's not so much for eating is Sunflowers - the giant ones, since they give a lot of needed shade and don't need much to grow. They also improve the soil, give a lot of biomass and are entirely edible if needed, good for attracting and feeding bees as well. I grow them in a way to deliberately provide shade but not too close otherwise the roots compete.
Mark, I’m from Guyana, South America and that bitter gourd is a regular vegetable called Carilla/Carillie and I absolutely love it. We usually cook it straight with shrimp or any kind of meat or smoked fish , fresh herbs, tomatoes etc and eat with rice However you can salt it and squeeze some of the juice out , however, all the good stuff is actually in the juice. The leaves we use as a medicine. We actually make the leaves into tea bags and use for medicine, good for blood purity , lower blood pressure etc. another way, is to stuff it with fresh shrimp, herbs, etc and cook in ccocnut milk curry sauce, this is called Kalonjie very delicious. I will say that it is an acquired taste. Smile😊 have a wonderful holiday
My kids would never eat Brussells Sprouts or cabbage because they said they were too bitter until my Nanna simmered them with a teaspoon of sugar for about 10 mins. Try it with the gourds, you never know. Cheers and happy Christmas and New Year.
I like bitter melon. I somtimes pickle them with cucumber and carrots with vinegar. Also I like Okinawa style cooking. You can make stir fly with pork, hard tofu, carrot, and eggs. Use Japanese dashi, soy source and sugar to flavour. I recommend slice bitter mellon thin, and branch them first. And i suggest add them at last stage of cooking. The combination of pork, and dashi flavour and sweet soy source flavour is devine. It is really good for you. I hope you can try the recipes.
Jerusalem Artichokes never leave. Which is a blessing is in disguise. I have never pickled them thou. My chickens and rabbits love the young stalks and leaves. So enjoying your video as it is snowing in KY, 4 inches and more coming. I wasn't able to watch earlier but what a treat for today.
I've grown bitter gourd a few times. I like to let them get over mature to a very orange color. The seeds have a beautiful and tasty red gel around them. The gourds don't seem to be as bitter and you can just add them fresh to a salsa.
Another great video, thanks. I have had good results removing nut grass here, near Woodford, Qld. I first dug down and tried to remove all the nuts along with the grass, a time consuming job, but worth it. As a follow up keep picking the grass which takes the energy away from the the nuts growing underneath, do this regularly as soon as you see new shoots, it has worked for me. I did try smothering it with a tarp but it just comes back to life when you uncover it.
Mark, Loved the video. I think we've seen almost all of them. Thank you for all the work that you do to teach and entertain us. We live in an area of the US that has problems with invasive Canadian and Scotch Thistle. Aside from purely mechanical control something I have been using lately is chemical control. I think I just heard many people gasp but let me finish. I have found that 5% vinegar is pretty good at knocking these down. Sometimes it takes several treatments but on the larger plants I don't mind as I believe I'm getting the roots this way. If I mix anything with it, I sometimes put in a couple drops of Dawn to act as a wetting agent. I do not worry about the vinegar as I use the same liquid on my salad. This may be an option for the Nut Grass that is invasive in your raised beds. The one caution is that it will affect any green growing thing it gets on. But if you are going to rest the bed maybe this would not hurt. Just an idea to try maybe in a small area.
I live in Townsville and I just happened to be listening to you while I was trying to dig up the nutgrass in my veggie patch when you talked about how hard it is to get rid of this horrible weed! So looking forward to seeing your plan to get rid of it!
Mark with your fruiting plants, if you want to avoid having pests ruining them before you harvest, I use some reusable mesh fruit bags that I cover over any fruits to protect them from bugs and other pests. Could be super helpful to protect your eggplants over summer 🤗 I even use them to protect my cherry tomatoes. Loving the videos! It’s so hard growing stuff in the tropics so it’s great to see what works for you to give me ideas 🤩
I've been watching the weather maps lately and what I saw was horrendous: temperatures above 42°C all over Australia! unbearable... I hope you and your family have a merry Christmas and a very good new 2025! Thanks for all your great videos! Greetings from Argentina
Thanks for always being so cheerful, Mark! You make me smile. And you've definitely inspired me and "cheered" me on in my gardening journey, even if you did't know it. So, for that, I just wanted to say, thanks!
Can't believe you're growing betel leaf - I only just learnt about their existence. This is why your my favourite, always expanding your garden plants and introducing us to the common and 'uncommon' ones
That is not betel leaf but 'wild pepper ' ( KADUK in Malaysia, Singapore n maybe in Indonesia too). It has a milder taste than betel leaf which is spicy.
This video was REALLY helpful and interesting Mark. As you are not far from me, the info was priceless…Interesting to see how your electroculture trial is going.
Black tarp over a raised bed just full of weeds would cook it all out easy I imagine. Maybe those bitter gourds as a fermented pickle would reduce bitterness?
Hi ho hi Mark. Merry Xmas from Mackay. We feel it’s pretty tropical here but some call us sub tropical. 🎄 we can grow whatever can be grown in any tropical climate. Hope that helps. 😂 Our cherry tomatoes are still producing well. The herbs are doing great. Our chillies, Cayenne and Bell chillies and our capsicum’s were stung by something this year and almost all rotted on the bushes. We had a bumper crop of tomatoes earlier on, but they wound up in late November. We still have a few lettuces going. I have noticed, for my particular growing conditions, that the best foods to grow at this time of year are greens. Anything leafy grows well. Warrigal greens and spinach vines grow great. Chicory and endive too. The silver beet is doing amazing. We even have a couple of cabbages growing as an experiment. But definitely the greens love this time of year here. So we grow them. Our local permaculturist professes we should give up trying to grow European vegetables at all and grow foods from tropical countries. While I’m inclined to agree for many things, we have success with a lot too. I think I’ll stick with what works for me. My observation is that I can grow things my neighbour can’t. It’s likely not me or him. Even though our properties are close, many factors make the two gardens produce in vastly different ways and each of us can have opposite success and failures with the same fruit or veg. We have strongly different beliefs about organic or not, our soils are different, we have different ways of doing things, and we use different products on our patch. I feed my soil not my plants. The soil feeds the plants. My advice to anyone who’s looking is to have a go. Be process oriented. Enjoy it. When you help that thrive you enjoy what you produce, so much more. Sure you want results. Bringing that bounty to the kitchen is the best feeling. But when you develop an interest in plants, soil, insects, birds and weeds and then have an eye for that entire ecosystem, something special happens inside. You’ll soon see a whole functional world going in your backyard that you never knew existed before. And the layers are endless. It’s so much fun. Take one step at a time my fellow gardeners. It’s a journey of a lifetime and no two seasons will ever be the same.
Bitter gourd or Karelia. Slice into thin circular slices. the younger the better. Should not have big seeds. But if the seeds are there just remove them. Fry it with salt and turmeric and jeera. Fry it until they colour golden brown. 20 to 30min. Then scramble eggs and add to the bitter gourd. Once eggs are fried the dish is done. Now there will be some bitterness but we enjoy it.
So much to be grown in Summer in this horrible hot humid weather. One thing I have yet to see you grow is watermelon, and I reckon you should give it a crack in your gourd tunnel mate. Wouldn't that be awesome, lovely melons hanging down? I have got some cucamelon growing this year. It's surviving thus far!
Write your own story with the earth-each plant is a chapter, filled with growth, challenges, and the ultimate reward of seeing your hard work come to life. ❤🌱
Mark you can cook the bitter melon by washing it, then Add salt, stir fry it with onions tomato’s garlic and eggs. Eat it with steam rice it’s really good.
I love your show. I am currently trying to grow food in containers inside my apartment, some is going really good and still learning. I used to live in Surfers Paradise in AU and man do i miss it. I live in South Dakota now, but if I could Id definitely come back to AU!
Bitter gourd (also known as karela) is a unique vegetable with a slightly bitter taste that can be balanced beautifully through proper preparation and frying. Here's a recipe for Crispy Fried Bitter Gourd (Karela Chips) to minimize bitterness while making it a delicious snack or side dish: Ingredients: 2 medium-sized bitter gourds (karela) ½ teaspoon turmeric powder 1 teaspoon salt (for soaking and seasoning) 1 teaspoon red chili powder (optional, for spice) ½ teaspoon ground cumin or coriander powder 2 tablespoons rice flour or chickpea flour (for extra crispiness) 2 tablespoons semolina (optional, for crunch) ½ cup cooking oil (for frying) Here in the UK i have been trying to grow them for years, if i am succesfull next (2025) i will make video of me cooking them up on the allotment
Don’t mix the bitter gourd/bitter melon when cooking. Just toss the stuff in the pot to mix. Also try stuffed bitter melon. Stuff the bitter melon with pork and make a Chinese black bean paste and oyster sauce and let the stuffed bitter melon simmer in the pan with a cover on it. After about an hour it should be cooked. It is soooo good.
I planted Asparagus (which i don't like) this spring, so maybe next year we'll have some to eat. Will plant more, grew them from root stock (thanks to electroculture they grew). I'm in the states, pacific northwest & we're in winter, so far mild. I had some late planted half dead tomato plant's, that thanks to electroculture survived until late October & produced fruit, had to ripen them inside. But i also planted way late some potatoes in summer, even though they weren't watered continuously they grew some, they actually sprouted underground & the plant's were beautifully green. I planted some towards fall & they were growing nicely too until late October when the frost got them. They are still buried, i just dug up some, beautiful Russets. Didn't get much water. But I'm going to use this put together hoop house as a cold frame next fall winter.
I grill our Bitter Melon (Gourd) just long enough to make it easy to chew, but not so long as it will get soggy. I'll grill steak once a week and fish 2-3 times a week. Will have bitter melon with each meal. Seems to take alot of the "bitterness" out of it if it's grilled.
GDay Mark. Love your show. My son is in the 2nd week of January near Brisband. He is all the way from Holland. He loves your show Just like i do. Kerp up the go work.
Hi just wanted to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I'm Jon from the Seattle area and I have been watching you for the past few years and I want to say I always look forward to seeing what you are growing and what you are up too. Thanks for all of your information.😊
Merry Christmas, Mark! Have a great year 2025 and hopefully, the weather will not get more extreme. I am in Germany, my kids were born in T.I. decades ago and I remember those summers well. When I lived in Victoria, we used to have a noxious grass called Kikuyo grass that grew over, into and through everything. It looked different to the nut grass, though. Cannot remember that one. Will continue watching your instructive and entertaining videos! From rainy, bleak and cold Northern Germany! All I have growing right now is onions and garlic plus, surprisingly, a big patch of cilantro that defies all logic.
@@Cons_Piracy_Theorist Yes! In those days: no TV, crank handle telephone, no shopping except Mrs. Farquhar's shop but we had fun, at least for a few years.
I'm in southern Vermont but we also have turmeric available this time of year because of our lovely winter farmer's market and a local farm who harvests and stores enough turmeric to supply interested customers. It's otherwise mostly tubers, hard squashes, onions and greenhouse greens for local produce otherwise. I can't complain about local fresh cilantro weekly!
For the bitter gourd, you might be able to get a good product by making it into a sweet pickle relish. Chop into small bits, let it sit for two hours or overnight, drain then process like cucumber sweet pickle relish. For the crops that are easy to grow I’m canning in different ways for various effects. I’m practicing for additional tastes. Can a few for testing. I don’t know how bitter gourds taste so it might work for you or not. Personal preference may make a difference, too.
The bitter melon or gourd as you call it is used in salad but it is still very bitter. It's an acquired taste. Either you like it or you hate. As a kid I hated it now I absolutely love it.
Thanks Mark. Wishing you a Blessed and Merry Christmas to you and your family and a Happy New Year 2025 from Texas. Thanks for the video. See you next year. 61 degrees F now 54 F on Christmas night. We just picked a lot of green tomatoes to fry. You never know.
That bitter gourd or cerasse is prepared by my Chinese Jamaican family by cutting in half and cleaning out the seeds. So your left with 2 cylinders that they usually stuff with minced pork or any favorite meat that was seasoned with grated garlic, ginger, bit of sugar and then steamed. Eaten with rice and oyster sauce or any sweet hoisin type sauce is good with it. The bitterness is lessened when steamed and the oyster sauce brings the sweet and salt. In Jamaica, the leaves are used for tea. Thought to be a blood cleanser and possibly thinner so its not to be drunk too often.
Blue berries are planted here in Winter Haven, Florida are in pine bark mulch with little dirt and they do Very well. I have enjoyed your channel with your good info. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year’s to you and family. Looking forward to growing the stripped egg plants.
Hi Mark the bitter gourd, You put the salt and vinger leave in for 5 minutes after 5 minutes you squeeze Squeeze until the juice of bitter gourd will drain very well. And wash it like i wash 3 time keep squeezeing . Drain it very well .Hope this work and then to cook you prepare onion herbs and egg lke crumbling eggs. seasoning . Yummy Huhuhu santa
The nut of nut sedge is related to the original, spiced, nut milk of Mexico, Horchata. Today, made with rice. Something to consider as a crop or turning under an infested bed. As for weed control, pull often and regularly. The nut will regenerate after three sets of apposing leaves. Keep pulling until the nut can't reproduce.
Merry Christmas, a thought to remove the bitter gourd, if you built a small cage to go over the beds with the bitter gourd you could put some chickens in the cage on the bed. They would dig scratch and peck through the soil and remove pretty well anything... might be worth giving a try, but you know your area and animals better than those of us in the comments.
That boggy patch looks perfect for growing Kangkong (Ipomoea aquatica) which loves boggy ground and is a particularly nice salad green, with no bitterness at all. If you can't walk or mow there anyway, might as well grow something to make good use of the space!
with the bitter gourd maybe try a sweet pickle? the vinegar and sugar might help cut the bitterness. I haven't grown/eaten them so can't say for sure though
Mark I absolutely love the way you describe the bitter gourd. I grow that here in Arkansas and it is a beautiful beautiful plant with fragrant flowers and I love the fruits. They fruit so prolifically. However I too cannot figure out how to eat it I wish I could. My husband is Filipino and there are a lot of different Asian varieties in Northwest Arkansas and they all love them. So I give a lot of way.
G'day Jill! Like I said in the video, I wish I loved it because it's probably one of the easiest crops to grow. I won't give up just yet, but when there are other choices in the garden eating bitter gourd is not something I need to make myself tolerate. Perhaps I will find a way to enjoy it... Cheers :)
I've actually found that a lot of the bitterness of the bittergoard is in the skin, so if you peel it and cook it in a skillet with butter and everything bagel low and slow until lightly browned, it comes out fairly decent. I also hate the bitterness, but the pickleworms in my area prevent me from growing any other variety of cucerbit and forced me to adapt by growing something I don't like as much. This year I will try growing eggplant for the first time as another alternative to squash/cucumbers.
Habanero's! In my opinion are not flavourful if anything slightly peppery but all heat.(Just like the ghost chilli all heat no flavour). But the Cayenne, Thai or birdseye personally again. These are the flavourful varieties (with the aroma hanging around the pallet for long intervals). 👍
I loved this video, super I had a misfortune, I was diagnosed with ovariian cancedr. I also created a channel and am trying to move in that direction, but so far not very successful(sdj&
Hi Mark, thank you for this video, I always learn something new when I watch you. I tried Jerusalem artichokes for the first time here in Colorado and oh my, they went nuts, bumper crop, I now have to learn how to cook and process them. I always try a new seed or crop every year to see what will grow here and what fails. Hope your family have a Merry Christmas and safe Happy New Year. Crystal
Such a fantabulous video to wake up and find today! I love listening to you and your family talk about growing (and catching!) the food you eat and how others can do the same, no matter where you live on this planet. I can't really grow anything right now, except for my fig tree which has been taken in for the winter, so watching your channel's videos is a blessing. I want to try one of those purple sweet potatoes the next growing season myself now. lol Purple Yam... Purple Yam... May you and yours have Happy Holidays!
-6C here (North Eastern US) today with snow showers, can feel the warmth of your weedy beds and gets me in the mood to plan next season's gardens. Hope you and your family have warm and happy holidays, cheers!
Hi Mark, Bitter Gourd is a terrific medicine for gor Diabetes and it also purified the blood and gives a beautiful skin. Very famous food for Asian and Sri Lankan cooking. You can cut the in ti thin slices and dry in the sun then quick deep fry. Usr tots of chopped tomatoes, salad onion salt and lemon juice. You can sell them if you don't like. Full of demand in Victoria.😊😊😊
I don't like anything bitter. Having something sour can counteract bitterness though. Maybe squeeze some lemon juice on it after preparing and cooking or try pickling it. Maybe even a fermented pickle will break down some of the bitter flavour.
The boggy ground can may be fixed by digging a trench across the front of the beds and installing Agi pipe to direct the water around the beds, just a thought...
Waiting to hear that method of eliminating the nutsedge. In ground in my location it would be a hopeless endeavor, but I think in a raised bed my own tactic would be to leave that bed empty until I had cycled all the material within it through a hot compost cycle. Just one cycle would do, so long as the material went into the center of the pile at the start and the target temperature was reached for long enough. No synthetic chemicals involved.
Grew up eating a filo bitter mellon dish, add say 80 percent beef mince and 20 bitter melon. The bitterness infuses the entire dish and is honestly such a unique and wonderful flavor. Still gotta learn how to make it and what they call it
G'day and Merry Christmas Everyone! Thanks for all your support this year, and I'm looking forward to "getting into it" in 2025. Cheers :)
Merry Christmas Mark
You've always been inspiring. Appreciate your humour, time and honesty. 🎉🎉❤🎉🎉
Little fun fact. About 80% of sugar in the USA is derived from beats , not sugarcane
Merry Christmas ⛄🎁 from Angola Indiana 🙏🔥
@@Natepwnsu And 98% of them are GMO sugar beets so that they are Roundup Ready.
Merry Christmas to you & your family as well! Enjoy your summer gardening as we are having snow flurries.
When I cook Chinese bitter melon, I've found the key is brining them before cooking. Let it soak in very salty water at least a couple hours. Chop it small so that the bitterness leeches out faster. It can actually help lower blood sugar.
"Santa's underpants" made me laugh so hard my drink came out of my nose and I nearly fell off my chair 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I lost it on that one!!!🎉😂
I loved this video, super I had a misfortune, I was diagnosed with ovariian cancedr. I also created a channel and am tryingG to move in that direction, but so far not very successful(4
Hi Mark, regarding the bitterguard, you can slice the fruit in circles and deep fry those circles in oil. Then they become crunchi. You can add fresh onions and lime juice, and make a fresh salad like mix with those crunchy bitterguard pieces. This is the best way to overcome bitterness. Plus you can preserve the deep fried pieces in a bottle. This receipi is from Sri Lanka where I come from, which my mother used to make. Really healthy for your blood sugar control. Best!. Anu
I have one part in my garden, that also tends to get kind of boggy and slippery, so I laid out some rubber horse mats with lots of holes, so within a year it was grown in and made the area more stable and easier to walk over. Even mowing the lawn in this spot is possible.:)
I’m so glad you show us the weeds and are “real” about what’s going on in the garden.
Mark, that's not betel leaf but 'wild pepper'. In Malaysia n Singapore ( perhaps Indonesia too ) call it KADUK.
I just remembered one of the many reasons I love your channel. I'm in the Northern hemisphere and i was just going through my seed inventory for February planting when you popped up in my feed wearing shorts and cracking Santa jokes😂😂❤
I loved this video, super I had a misfortune, I was diagnossed with ovariian cancedr. I also created a channel and am trying to move in that direction, but so far not very successful(
@@marthacancerng As a CA survivor, keep the spirit up. Keep moving and live your life. You might have to cut back a little because you are so darn tired or sometimes a bit sick. Good luck on your journey, eat well no matter what.
I saw a video recently about creating long term woodchip compost in your garden pathways, which has the added benefit of giving you something to walk on instead of muddy ground. every few years you just dig up all the broken down wood chips and use them in the garden and replace with new chips, might be something to look into to solve your muddy path issue
Clever!
I do this. It works great, it's be walking in clay mud up my ears without it in the rainy season.
I use them here in KY. Works wonders and they do last awhile. I have never dug them up, I just add more.
@MargaretFinnell i don't usually dig mine up either but it was great to do so when I doubled the size of my market gardens across an area of hard pan clay, i raked the top layer of big chips back and took the under layer and formed my new beds from that as a base with a compost topper. Then I just put a new 6-8" layer of chips down on the pathways I took from. Those beds only took a year to look as good as the ones I started from scratch just layering compost on for 3 years. I also found in a pinch if I'm grabbing volunteers to pot up and move from the main rows that I just dig down into the path a bit to fill a pot and pop it in.
@@MK-ti2oo My main problem is getting the wood-chips. I am very allergic to poison oak/ivy so I really have to be careful on asking for a load of chips if I see a crew cutting. This working full-time also limits what I can do. The only volunteers that I have gotten lately are weeds.
If you just put some shade cloth up you can grow stuff like bok choy and salad greens quite easily through out summer too. They just won’t grow big but still tasty.
Nut grass tuber is edible.
In USA it’s called tigernut. Roasted it’s delicious and makes great flour.
Learn something new every day oh my!!! thank you and a blessed Christmas slightly late.
@
Merry Christmas to you as well and hope you have a great new year
The weeds are doing super well. Merry Christmas everyone.
Thanks for showing a realistic sub-tropical food garden in summer! We too have the fabulous nut grass and vines and other summer weeds have have taken over most of the beds… which we are letting rest is a good way to put it! Thanks for putting my mind at ease that I’m not vigilant enough in this SEQ summer… but normal!
Bitter Melon. Mark, dehydrate it, powder it and turn it into capsules. Bitter melon is fantastic for getting rid of inflammation in the body. 4 - 6 capsules per day helped me get rid of pain associated with inflammation.
I’m going to grow bitter melon for this exact purpose.
I'm growing it right now on a trellis, it's radiated maybe 1.5 metres. South east asians seem to love it and prize it. When I went to Thailand they were very proud of their weedy vine which pales into insignificance compared to mine. I was planning on fermenting mine if it's unusable fresh.
That's a great idea! Cheers :)
Ginger, Turmeric, Potatoes, Sweet potato, Herbs. Another one that's not so much for eating is Sunflowers - the giant ones, since they give a lot of needed shade and don't need much to grow. They also improve the soil, give a lot of biomass and are entirely edible if needed, good for attracting and feeding bees as well. I grow them in a way to deliberately provide shade but not too close otherwise the roots compete.
Mark, I’m from Guyana, South America and that bitter gourd is a regular vegetable called Carilla/Carillie and I absolutely love it. We usually cook it straight with shrimp or any kind of meat or smoked fish , fresh herbs, tomatoes etc and eat with rice However you can salt it and squeeze some of the juice out , however, all the good stuff is actually in the juice. The leaves we use as a medicine. We actually make the leaves into tea bags and use for medicine, good for blood purity , lower blood pressure etc. another way, is to stuff it with fresh shrimp, herbs, etc and cook in ccocnut milk curry sauce, this is called Kalonjie very delicious. I will say that it is an acquired taste. Smile😊 have a wonderful holiday
I love watching your videos while I'm ordering my spring seeds here in zone 6 of the USA (all four seasons) Reminds me the cold isn't forever🎉
My kids would never eat Brussells Sprouts or cabbage because they said they were too bitter until my Nanna simmered them with a teaspoon of sugar for about 10 mins. Try it with the gourds, you never know. Cheers and happy Christmas and New Year.
I like bitter melon. I somtimes pickle them with cucumber and carrots with vinegar. Also I like Okinawa style cooking. You can make stir fly with pork, hard tofu, carrot, and eggs. Use Japanese dashi, soy source and sugar to flavour. I recommend slice bitter mellon thin, and branch them first. And i suggest add them at last stage of cooking. The combination of pork, and dashi flavour and sweet soy source flavour is devine. It is really good for you. I hope you can try the recipes.
Jerusalem Artichokes never leave. Which is a blessing is in disguise. I have never pickled them thou. My chickens and rabbits love the young stalks and leaves. So enjoying your video as it is snowing in KY, 4 inches and more coming. I wasn't able to watch earlier but what a treat for today.
I've grown bitter gourd a few times. I like to let them get over mature to a very orange color. The seeds have a beautiful and tasty red gel around them. The gourds don't seem to be as bitter and you can just add them fresh to a salsa.
Another great video, thanks. I have had good results removing nut grass here, near Woodford, Qld. I first dug down and tried to remove all the nuts along with the grass, a time consuming job, but worth it. As a follow up keep picking the grass which takes the energy away from the the nuts growing underneath, do this regularly as soon as you see new shoots, it has worked for me. I did try smothering it with a tarp but it just comes back to life when you uncover it.
The bitter melon is good for dehydrating and making tea with it. It's good for regulating sugar levels.
19:23 I just made mojitos this evening from mint in my yard! 😂
I’m in Houston and it’s in the low 70s F today 😅
Mark, Loved the video. I think we've seen almost all of them. Thank you for all the work that you do to teach and entertain us.
We live in an area of the US that has problems with invasive Canadian and Scotch Thistle. Aside from purely mechanical control something I have been using lately is chemical control. I think I just heard many people gasp but let me finish. I have found that 5% vinegar is pretty good at knocking these down. Sometimes it takes several treatments but on the larger plants I don't mind as I believe I'm getting the roots this way. If I mix anything with it, I sometimes put in a couple drops of Dawn to act as a wetting agent. I do not worry about the vinegar as I use the same liquid on my salad. This may be an option for the Nut Grass that is invasive in your raised beds. The one caution is that it will affect any green growing thing it gets on. But if you are going to rest the bed maybe this would not hurt. Just an idea to try maybe in a small area.
Merry Christmas from Joburg, South Africa. Almost the same climate.
Merry Christmas 🎅 This Florida gardener is really motivated by year videos. Looking forward to next year. 😊
I live in Townsville and I just happened to be listening to you while I was trying to dig up the nutgrass in my veggie patch when you talked about how hard it is to get rid of this horrible weed! So looking forward to seeing your plan to get rid of it!
Mark with your fruiting plants, if you want to avoid having pests ruining them before you harvest, I use some reusable mesh fruit bags that I cover over any fruits to protect them from bugs and other pests. Could be super helpful to protect your eggplants over summer 🤗 I even use them to protect my cherry tomatoes.
Loving the videos! It’s so hard growing stuff in the tropics so it’s great to see what works for you to give me ideas 🤩
I've been watching the weather maps lately and what I saw was horrendous: temperatures above 42°C all over Australia! unbearable... I hope you and your family have a merry Christmas and a very good new 2025! Thanks for all your great videos! Greetings from Argentina
I grow Rosella. Makes great tea.
Thanks for always being so cheerful, Mark! You make me smile. And you've definitely inspired me and "cheered" me on in my gardening journey, even if you did't know it. So, for that, I just wanted to say, thanks!
Merry Christmas. I have 6 inches of snow in my beds currently and it's about 4 months until planting season. Time to plan and dream.
Can't believe you're growing betel leaf - I only just learnt about their existence. This is why your my favourite, always expanding your garden plants and introducing us to the common and 'uncommon' ones
That is not betel leaf but 'wild pepper ' ( KADUK in Malaysia, Singapore n maybe in Indonesia too). It has a milder taste than betel leaf which is spicy.
Blueberries are a pain to grow 😂
Good luck
Merry Christmas to you, Bella, and the rest of the fam, from Florida!
This video was REALLY helpful and interesting Mark. As you are not far from me, the info was priceless…Interesting to see how your electroculture trial is going.
Thanks mate, yeah the electroculture experiment is coming along better than I thought. The pest comparison is interesting... Cheers :)
Black tarp over a raised bed just full of weeds would cook it all out easy I imagine. Maybe those bitter gourds as a fermented pickle would reduce bitterness?
A clear tarp so I can watch it suffer... ;)
You need to look up bitter gourd chips and bitter gourd pickles! They are common recipes my mom prepares in the south of India!
Hi ho hi Mark. Merry Xmas from Mackay. We feel it’s pretty tropical here but some call us sub tropical. 🎄 we can grow whatever can be grown in any tropical climate. Hope that helps. 😂
Our cherry tomatoes are still producing well. The herbs are doing great. Our chillies, Cayenne and Bell chillies and our capsicum’s were stung by something this year and almost all rotted on the bushes.
We had a bumper crop of tomatoes earlier on, but they wound up in late November. We still have a few lettuces going. I have noticed, for my particular growing conditions, that the best foods to grow at this time of year are greens. Anything leafy grows well. Warrigal greens and spinach vines grow great. Chicory and endive too.
The silver beet is doing amazing. We even have a couple of cabbages growing as an experiment. But definitely the greens love this time of year here. So we grow them.
Our local permaculturist professes we should give up trying to grow European vegetables at all and grow foods from tropical countries. While I’m inclined to agree for many things, we have success with a lot too. I think I’ll stick with what works for me.
My observation is that I can grow things my neighbour can’t. It’s likely not me or him. Even though our properties are close, many factors make the two gardens produce in vastly different ways and each of us can have opposite success and failures with the same fruit or veg.
We have strongly different beliefs about organic or not, our soils are different, we have different ways of doing things, and we use different products on our patch. I feed my soil not my plants. The soil feeds the plants.
My advice to anyone who’s looking is to have a go. Be process oriented. Enjoy it. When you help that thrive you enjoy what you produce, so much more. Sure you want results. Bringing that bounty to the kitchen is the best feeling.
But when you develop an interest in plants, soil, insects, birds and weeds and then have an eye for that entire ecosystem, something special happens inside.
You’ll soon see a whole functional world going in your backyard that you never knew existed before. And the layers are endless. It’s so much fun.
Take one step at a time my fellow gardeners. It’s a journey of a lifetime and no two seasons will ever be the same.
Are you sure it's not blossom end rot (I think thats the name) on your chillies? It threw me for a loop the first time growing them.
G'day Jodie! What a lovely motivational comment you've written, full of great information! Thank you :)
Bitter gourd or Karelia. Slice into thin circular slices. the younger the better. Should not have big seeds. But if the seeds are there just remove them. Fry it with salt and turmeric and jeera. Fry it until they colour golden brown. 20 to 30min. Then scramble eggs and add to the bitter gourd. Once eggs are fried the dish is done. Now there will be some bitterness but we enjoy it.
So much to be grown in Summer in this horrible hot humid weather. One thing I have yet to see you grow is watermelon, and I reckon you should give it a crack in your gourd tunnel mate. Wouldn't that be awesome, lovely melons hanging down? I have got some cucamelon growing this year. It's surviving thus far!
Unreal Mark. Love these long tour videos of yours. Have a great holiday.
Thanks for the feedback, Josh! And you have a good holiday also. Cheers :)
My year starts today. And what a great idea to start with your video the first thing in the morning. Thanks Mark !
You always say the best little jokes that I can’t imagine other people getting away with, but somehow I seem to enjoy them very much 😆
Well done
Write your own story with the earth-each plant is a chapter, filled with growth, challenges, and the ultimate reward of seeing your hard work come to life. ❤🌱
Mark you can cook the bitter melon by washing it, then Add salt, stir fry it with onions tomato’s garlic and eggs. Eat it with steam rice it’s really good.
I love your show. I am currently trying to grow food in containers inside my apartment, some is going really good and still learning. I used to live in Surfers Paradise in AU and man do i miss it. I live in South Dakota now, but if I could Id definitely come back to AU!
Also mark in India then make bitter melon chips. Just slice, Wash, soak in salt and vinegar, then rinse and deep fry.
Thanks, Mark! Always enjoy your videos! Cheers! 🙂
Bitter gourd (also known as karela) is a unique vegetable with a slightly bitter taste that can be balanced beautifully through proper preparation and frying. Here's a recipe for Crispy Fried Bitter Gourd (Karela Chips) to minimize bitterness while making it a delicious snack or side dish:
Ingredients:
2 medium-sized bitter gourds (karela)
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon salt (for soaking and seasoning)
1 teaspoon red chili powder (optional, for spice)
½ teaspoon ground cumin or coriander powder
2 tablespoons rice flour or chickpea flour (for extra crispiness)
2 tablespoons semolina (optional, for crunch)
½ cup cooking oil (for frying)
Here in the UK i have been trying to grow them for years, if i am succesfull next (2025) i will make video of me cooking them up on the allotment
Cook the bitter melon with black bean sauce. Slice it up and stir fry it with the sauce. It’s great.
Don’t mix the bitter gourd/bitter melon when cooking. Just toss the stuff in the pot to mix. Also try stuffed bitter melon. Stuff the bitter melon with pork and make a Chinese black bean paste and oyster sauce and let the stuffed bitter melon simmer in the pan with a cover on it. After about an hour it should be cooked. It is soooo good.
I planted Asparagus (which i don't like) this spring, so maybe next year we'll have some to eat. Will plant more, grew them from root stock (thanks to electroculture they grew). I'm in the states, pacific northwest & we're in winter, so far mild. I had some late planted half dead tomato plant's, that thanks to electroculture survived until late October & produced fruit, had to ripen them inside. But i also planted way late some potatoes in summer, even though they weren't watered continuously they grew some, they actually sprouted underground & the plant's were beautifully green. I planted some towards fall & they were growing nicely too until late October when the frost got them. They are still buried, i just dug up some, beautiful Russets. Didn't get much water. But I'm going to use this put together hoop house as a cold frame next fall winter.
I love garden tour videos ❤ thank you so much. Merry Christmas and happy new year.
4:17 Thank you I was wondering about the results
I grill our Bitter Melon (Gourd) just long enough to make it easy to chew, but not so long as it will get soggy. I'll grill steak once a week and fish 2-3 times a week. Will have bitter melon with each meal. Seems to take alot of the "bitterness" out of it if it's grilled.
GDay Mark.
Love your show.
My son is in the 2nd week of January near Brisband.
He is all the way from Holland. He loves your show Just like i do.
Kerp up the go work.
G'day Mickey, and say hello to your son for me. I hope you are having a great holiday! Cheers :)
Hi just wanted to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
I'm Jon from the Seattle area and I have been watching you for the past few years and I want to say I always look forward to seeing what you are growing and what you are up too.
Thanks for all of your information.😊
Merry Christmas, Mark! Have a great year 2025 and hopefully, the weather will not get more extreme. I am in Germany, my kids were born in T.I. decades ago and I remember those summers well. When I lived in Victoria, we used to have a noxious grass called Kikuyo grass that grew over, into and through everything. It looked different to the nut grass, though. Cannot remember that one. Will continue watching your instructive and entertaining videos! From rainy, bleak and cold Northern Germany! All I have growing right now is onions and garlic plus, surprisingly, a big patch of cilantro that defies all logic.
When you say TI do you mean Thursday Island?
@@Cons_Piracy_Theorist Yes! In those days: no TV, crank handle telephone, no shopping except Mrs. Farquhar's shop but we had fun, at least for a few years.
@@Braisin-Raisin Wow very cool! I grew up in Weipa. I've never been to TI, just the tip of Cape York when I was very young
I'm in southern Vermont but we also have turmeric available this time of year because of our lovely winter farmer's market and a local farm who harvests and stores enough turmeric to supply interested customers. It's otherwise mostly tubers, hard squashes, onions and greenhouse greens for local produce otherwise. I can't complain about local fresh cilantro weekly!
For the bitter gourd, you might be able to get a good product by making it into a sweet pickle relish. Chop into small bits, let it sit for two hours or overnight, drain then process like cucumber sweet pickle relish. For the crops that are easy to grow I’m canning in different ways for various effects. I’m practicing for additional tastes.
Can a few for testing.
I don’t know how bitter gourds taste so it might work for you or not. Personal preference may make a difference, too.
The bitter melon or gourd as you call it is used in salad but it is still very bitter. It's an acquired taste. Either you like it or you hate. As a kid I hated it now I absolutely love it.
For the bitter melons. Just try the tiniest slice that you can tolerate every day until your tastebuds adapt to like it.
Thanks Mark. Wishing you a Blessed and Merry Christmas to you and your family and a Happy New Year 2025 from Texas. Thanks for the video. See you next year.
61 degrees F now 54 F on Christmas night. We just picked a lot of green tomatoes to fry. You never know.
Merry Christmas, Donna, and Happy New Year! Fried or pickled green tomatoes are sumptuous. All the best :)
That bitter gourd or cerasse is prepared by my Chinese Jamaican family by cutting in half and cleaning out the seeds. So your left with 2 cylinders that they usually stuff with minced pork or any favorite meat that was seasoned with grated garlic, ginger, bit of sugar and then steamed. Eaten with rice and oyster sauce or any sweet hoisin type sauce is good with it. The bitterness is lessened when steamed and the oyster sauce brings the sweet and salt.
In Jamaica, the leaves are used for tea. Thought to be a blood cleanser and possibly thinner so its not to be drunk too often.
We normally soak it in salt water for 1/2 hour during preparation to leach out some of it bitterness
Chinese Jamaican is a pretty cool mix!
Blue berries are planted here in Winter Haven, Florida are in pine bark mulch with little dirt and they do Very well. I have enjoyed your channel with your good info. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year’s to you and family. Looking forward to growing the stripped egg plants.
I love your video's. I'm in SW Florida so I plant your winter crops in my summer.
Hi Mark the bitter gourd, You put the salt and vinger leave in for 5 minutes after 5 minutes you squeeze Squeeze until the juice of bitter gourd will drain very well. And wash it like i wash 3 time keep squeezeing . Drain it very well .Hope this work and then to cook you prepare onion herbs and egg
lke crumbling eggs. seasoning . Yummy
Huhuhu santa
Thanks for the information on the bitter gourd preparation. I'll give it a go. Cheers :)
Oh you can also pickle it With limes and chilies, and it is a great addition to hot sauces as well.
The nut of nut sedge is related to the original, spiced, nut milk of Mexico, Horchata. Today, made with rice. Something to consider as a crop or turning under an infested bed.
As for weed control, pull often and regularly. The nut will regenerate after three sets of apposing leaves. Keep pulling until the nut can't reproduce.
Merry Christmas, a thought to remove the bitter gourd, if you built a small cage to go over the beds with the bitter gourd you could put some chickens in the cage on the bed. They would dig scratch and peck through the soil and remove pretty well anything... might be worth giving a try, but you know your area and animals better than those of us in the comments.
That boggy patch looks perfect for growing Kangkong (Ipomoea aquatica) which loves boggy ground and is a particularly nice salad green, with no bitterness at all. If you can't walk or mow there anyway, might as well grow something to make good use of the space!
Thank you Marc!very merry holidays to you ! Best regards 😍
with the bitter gourd maybe try a sweet pickle? the vinegar and sugar might help cut the bitterness. I haven't grown/eaten them so can't say for sure though
Mark I absolutely love the way you describe the bitter gourd. I grow that here in Arkansas and it is a beautiful beautiful plant with fragrant flowers and I love the fruits. They fruit so prolifically. However I too cannot figure out how to eat it I wish I could. My husband is Filipino and there are a lot of different Asian varieties in Northwest Arkansas and they all love them. So I give a lot of way.
G'day Jill! Like I said in the video, I wish I loved it because it's probably one of the easiest crops to grow. I won't give up just yet, but when there are other choices in the garden eating bitter gourd is not something I need to make myself tolerate. Perhaps I will find a way to enjoy it... Cheers :)
I've actually found that a lot of the bitterness of the bittergoard is in the skin, so if you peel it and cook it in a skillet with butter and everything bagel low and slow until lightly browned, it comes out fairly decent. I also hate the bitterness, but the pickleworms in my area prevent me from growing any other variety of cucerbit and forced me to adapt by growing something I don't like as much. This year I will try growing eggplant for the first time as another alternative to squash/cucumbers.
Love this! Also perennial crops = free food. Thanks Mark, for reminding me that reclaimed seeds can be sowed, you don’t necessarily have to buy them.
Habanero's!
In my opinion are not flavourful if anything slightly peppery but all heat.(Just like the ghost chilli all heat no flavour).
But the Cayenne, Thai or birdseye personally again. These are the flavourful varieties (with the aroma hanging around the pallet for long intervals). 👍
Thank you my Australian friend. We are covered with snow and the ground is frozen solid here in the mid atlantic US. Merry Christmas
In southern Victoria our climate is quite different from yours but I love seeing what you’re growing!
I loved this video, super I had a misfortune, I was diagnosed with ovariian cancedr. I also created a channel and am trying to move in that direction, but so far not very successful(sdj&
Hi Mark, thank you for this video, I always learn something new when I watch you. I tried Jerusalem artichokes for the first time here in Colorado and oh my, they went nuts, bumper crop, I now have to learn how to cook and process them. I always try a new seed or crop every year to see what will grow here and what fails. Hope your family have a Merry Christmas and safe Happy New Year. Crystal
Try fermenting the Jerusalem artichokes. They ferment easily and have a tangy, crunchy yummy taste. Happy New Year :)
Please try the Gouya Champur recipe for your Bitter Gourdes . You'd love it. One of the reasons they say Okinawans live long
Seasons Greetings, Mark - thanks for sharing
12:26 Cool Crab spider 😄
So lucky you are able to do this… in Canada most of our land is uninhabitable, can’t do anything for 6 months of the year.. blessings to all
Look at anew Englader, Eloit Coleman. His daughter has taken over the business for him. He's famous for his 4-season gardening. 🌴
Thanks for sharing the ups and downs of a garden. Fartichoke made me giggle. Happy Holidays!
Such a fantabulous video to wake up and find today! I love listening to you and your family talk about growing (and catching!) the food you eat and how others can do the same, no matter where you live on this planet. I can't really grow anything right now, except for my fig tree which has been taken in for the winter, so watching your channel's videos is a blessing. I want to try one of those purple sweet potatoes the next growing season myself now. lol Purple Yam... Purple Yam...
May you and yours have Happy Holidays!
Thanks for the fantastic feedback. Happy holidays, and good luck with the purple yam! Cheers :)
-6C here (North Eastern US) today with snow showers, can feel the warmth of your weedy beds and gets me in the mood to plan next season's gardens. Hope you and your family have warm and happy holidays, cheers!
Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and Vixon; Comet, Cupid Donner, Blitzen and Rudolph of course.
Don’t forget Olive, the Other Reindeer.
LOL... Show off! :)
Feliz Navidad from Baja, Mexico. We are here until March. May you bloom and grow!🌱🌴
Bitter gourd = chicken feed. Nut grass is a major headache here as well. I look forward to seeing what you do. Merry Christmas!
Hi Mark, Bitter Gourd is a terrific medicine for gor Diabetes and it also purified the blood and gives a beautiful skin. Very famous food for Asian and Sri Lankan cooking.
You can cut the in ti thin slices and dry in the sun then quick deep fry. Usr tots of chopped tomatoes, salad onion salt and lemon juice.
You can sell them if you don't like. Full of demand in Victoria.😊😊😊
Merry Christmas Mark and Family🎄, home alone with Covid🥲
Oh I am so sorry, get well soon! But Merry Christmas anyway!
Feel better soon! I’m also sick for Christmas. Been sick since Friday, really hoped I’d be feeling better by now but no.
I hope you get better soon Rick! Merry Christmas and cheers :)
I don't like anything bitter. Having something sour can counteract bitterness though. Maybe squeeze some lemon juice on it after preparing and cooking or try pickling it. Maybe even a fermented pickle will break down some of the bitter flavour.
I love this video as I live in South Africa.-- also white hot Christmas season
Thank you for all your posts and have a happy holiday.
The boggy ground can may be fixed by digging a trench across the front of the beds and installing Agi pipe to direct the water around the beds, just a thought...
Waiting to hear that method of eliminating the nutsedge. In ground in my location it would be a hopeless endeavor, but I think in a raised bed my own tactic would be to leave that bed empty until I had cycled all the material within it through a hot compost cycle. Just one cycle would do, so long as the material went into the center of the pile at the start and the target temperature was reached for long enough. No synthetic chemicals involved.
Just quickly Mark, i frow apple cucumber through summer successfully.
Grew up eating a filo bitter mellon dish, add say 80 percent beef mince and 20 bitter melon. The bitterness infuses the entire dish and is honestly such a unique and wonderful flavor.
Still gotta learn how to make it and what they call it