Winter Melon (Yuan Dong Gua)

[macmex]

Scientific name: Benincasa hispida

I'm going to experiment with this cucurbit. What nudged me into purchasing some seed was a comment that Glenn Drowns made in his online catalog. I was making out my order and stumbled across a blurb he wrote about it. He was growing it near his chickens and saw that it was loaded with fruit. Never having tried it, he decided to pick one and fix it in chicken soup. In oriental cultures it is often used as a vegetable in soups and stews. He skinned and seeded the fruit and chunked it into the pot of soup. I can't remember his exact words, but essentially he stated that he was quite impressed! He was offering a packet of seed for a dollar, to encourage gardeners to try this promising vegetable. I added a packet to my order and... apparently they ran out of them before they could get to me. I received several very nice, complimentary seed packets with my order, but not the winter melon. 

Over the course of a week or two I kept thinking about this crop and how nice it would be to have something that stores like a winter squash and makes good veggies for winter use. Winter melons often develop a whitish waxy exterior coat when fully ripe and then, when stored at room temperature will keep like a good winter squash. In February, the idea of having something on the order of an extra firm summer squash, which goes well in soups and stews, sounds very very good! 

By the way, I discovered that this plant is widely grown throughout Asia, including in India and Indonesia. Each place has their own name for it.

There are apparently a huge number of varieties of this plant too. I read that some varieties produce fruit up to 60 lb each and some as small as a softball. Some are round and pumpkin shaped. Some, as in this photo, are oblong. I have even found some images of long, slender, spindle shaped fruit. I pondered what variety to try, mainly thinking about size. A smaller size might be nice, as one could cut one, use it and be done, all in one meal, but my squash growing/using experience made me lean more towards a variety which produces between 15 and 20 lb fruit. I want it to last well in storage. What I ordered was from an Etsy store, listed for $2.50 (20 seeds). With S & H the order cost over $6, but for something like this, I consider that an acceptable price. The seeds arrived in about 3 days. I think they counted them out, 20 to be exact. They look like white gourd seed and are about the size of a small watermelon seed. 

After ordering I realized that the exact variety is Kitazawa Round #089. Kitazawa has a number of varieties. I have it from good sources that this is an excellent seed company for oriental vegetables.

Anyway, I'm excited about this one! I wonder if it might not even be something to use for feeding livestock during the winter? I wonder if it is borer resistant and resistant to squash bugs? Will this be a "feel good crop?!" I hope so.

Wikipedia article on Winter melon

Have any of you grown winter melon? How did you like it? I'd love to know about your experience and what you learned.


 

[macmex]

At the time of this writing I'm on a short visit to Alaska, to visit my youngest daughter. Knowing me so very well, yesterday she suggested that we take a tour of a local grocery store. Its specialty is to carry special ingredients for various ethnic communities found in the Anchorage area. I couldn't have been more happy to be walking the aisle, reading (what I could read) on the labels and speculating about all the things we could learn from these cultures, for better eating. Right off the bat, when we walked through the produce area, I discovered that they carried a far wider variety of sweet potatoes than a regular grocery.



We also encountered a bin of winter melon! I couldn't resist. I bought one. I believe I paid $6.67 for it. Before I head back to Oklahoma I'm determined to cut this fruit and try making something with it. That way, when I grow it in my garden I'll have an idea of what we'll be doing with the harvest. I also expect I'll come away with more seed, which I can then share with a few friends.



One of the great benefits I see in cultural interchanges is that each culture has "secrets" to share with the others about to eat well.

[heavyhitterokra]

That was a cool story, George!

[boiledpeanut]

The taste is diffeerent from that of a summer squash, its light and even refreshing.
"What Does It Taste Like? Mature winter melon has a very mild taste, while the immature fruit is sweet. It's often compared to the taste of cucumber, with a refreshing, almost grassy flavor. If you've eaten the white rind of a watermelon, it's nearly identical to winter melon."

I hope you enjoy it! always exciting to grow new things in the garden,

[macmex]

Well, when I flew back from Anchorage, I carried a good sized chunk of the winter melon I had purchased there. Not only did I want to try eating more, but it was full of seed! The first few days home I was down with the stomach bug and unable to eat. But Saturday I put together a pot of chicken soup, using winter melon chunks as part of the vegetable mix. Jerreth had almost an entire, homegrown chicken, already cooked, in the fridge, so it was easy to throw together a pot of soup/stew.

I used a vegetable peeler to peal long slices of the winter melon. Then, I cut them into 1x2" chunks and added them to the soup. Here's a photo of what they looked like added, but still not cooked.


I kind of wondered if I'd overdone it, but, as it turned out, I hadn't. When we ate the soup I thought I could have added more. Our daughter thought the amount I'd used was perfect. Everyone enjoyed it.



 The cooked chunks were green and somewhat translucent. They absorb the flavor of the food they are cooked in. I don't believe it's my imagination, but my impression was that they were even better the when we had this soup as leftovers. I'm sold! We're definitely going to include wax gourd/winter melon in this year's garden.

And... I have seed I can share.


winter melon/ wax gourd seed 
The photo shows two batches of seed, laid out on the same piece of cardboard. I still have a little bit of the gourd in the fridge and hope to add it to something soon. 
 

[macmex]

Seems the norm for me that I am always running behind on garden stuff. I believe it was July 13 when I decided to just whack a hole in a weedy, untamed area of the garden and plant some winter melon seed. I've done this in the past and then worked on cleaning and clearing around the planting as it started to grow. Anyway, yesterday evening I checked on them and they were up. I planted from the seed I got from the fruit I purchased in Anchorage, Alaska, back in March.



Hopefully this will mature and produce fruit before frost. 

Squash bugs wiped out my white cushaws, about 15' away from this planting. Sad to say, the cushaws were ready to start setting fruit when the squash bugs hit. I was too busy to do anything about it, and when I did, it was too late. 

[Deleted]

Looking forward to watching this one!  sorry you lost your cushaw.

[rdback]

Good Luck George!

Looking forward to watching this grow.

[macmex]

I let this thread go without any conclusion. Back in 2021 I did get a harvest, albeit a very small harvest of winter melon. If I recall, I only got one small fruit. Can't remember why. It's now 2023 and I didn't replant this one in 2022. This spring I found what I thought were Old Timey Cornfield pumpkins coming up in my compost pile, next to the main garden. I pulled them up, as I had a planting of Warsaw Buff Pie Pumpkin going and didn't want to have any crosses. Then, I left to visit our daughter, out in SC. When I returned a few weeks later more had sprouted. The plants looked so healthy and beautiful I hesitated to yank them. Then I noticed that they weren't c. moschata at all. I thought they were volunteer cantaloupes from our kitchen scraps. So I left them. I did water once or twice but not much. The plants continued to grow beautifully. By August I was thinking, "I might have to save seed if this cantaloupe makes fruit. Never seen a cantaloupe which was so extremely hardy and vigorous." I watched the plants grow. They encouraged me, as my garden is a wreck this summer. It's nice to see something grow. I thought of an analogy with darts. Maybe since this "dart" landed so solidly, I should draw the target around it and say I hit it bulleye!" This week I kept thinking that I needed to look and see if we had any fruit forming.


Picture of the plants this morning


This morning I took a moment and poked around in all that foliage. The first thing I found was an obviously immature (green) fruit. At first glance I thought, "Wow, an elongated cantaloupe! I really need to save seed!" But then I touched it.... It was fuzzy to touch!


This jogged my memory...
I poked around a bit more and... Bingo! I found a mature fruit!


This isn't cantaloupe, it's winter melon (a.k.a wax melon)! This one fruit is actually mature and ready to harvest! What a pick me up! Here's another fruit. I believe this one is almost mature.


Best of all, there are lots and lots more flowers. There's almost certainly time for more fruit to mature.



Observation: the livestock doesn't bother these. They're growing right in the pasture where I regularly observe goats, horses and our steer grazing. Apparently this plant doesn't taste good to livestock.



 

[chrysanthemum]

Wow. How exciting. I’m glad something is doing so well out there in all that heat. It’s wonderful that the livestock aren’t finding it palatiable, too.

[macmex]

Here's another observation. When mature these fruit are covered in a white, waxy powder. I assume this is why the plant is sometimes called a "wax melon." 




Whenever one picks one of these fruit up, the powder comes off on their hands.
I understand that the powder helps them to have a longer shelf life, so I assume it would be best not to wipe it off. Anyone out there have experience in this area?

[macmex]

Recently the fruit has become much more easy to spot. As it matures it turns white. I'm impressed with just how productive this plant is.







One more note: When picking these it's best to wear gloves. Besides the wax, they also have tiny hairs which serve as "prickers." I picked one barehanded and carried it to the house. After a few minutes I noticed that the skin on my hands and arms itched, much as if I had handled fiberglass.

[heavyhitterokra]

George,

It's fitting that the winter melon in the last photo has an almost angelic 'glow' to it, being that this has been such a bad year for growing things, any success had by anyone is cherished by all.

Thanks, for sharing that.

[macmex]

It has, indeed, been an encouragement. I'll have to post a photo of the largest which has emerged from under the foliage. It's huge. If it were a watermelon I would estimate it to weigh nearly 40 lb! I purchased seed to a smaller version of wintermelon, which gets the size of, say, a Sugar Baby watermelon. I'll be torn over which to grow next year. The smaller size is probably more practical but, boy howdy, the large ones sure do make a person feel good!

Once cut the left over piece(s) will have to be stored in the fridge until used.

This is a particularly bland vegetable. I cooked some up, green, like summer squash, and found that though palatable, it is not apealing. It's primarily good as a healthy, nutritious "filler" for soups, stews and stir fries. I read that they also use it to make candy, probably because it will soak up sugar and flavorings really well.

I'm particularly happy that the animals left the plants alone. On our farm, this opens up all kinds of possibilities.

[macmex]

Harvested a couple more of these today. The large on in these photos is the largest out there. I'd say it weighs nearly 30 pounds and looks even larger.