I was disappointed too, after waiting so many years. It is hard to get the perfectly good one in terms of flavor and texture, even though the skin is thin and not sour when ripe.
Elephant heart is one of my favorite j.plums just exceedingly delicious, aromatic extremely juicy sweet and tart. I am surprised it does not do good for you btle in the western side of colorado (z6) it does very good.
Cucumbers for cucumber salad
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I like the flavor when it is not over ripe, and it is very sweet.
I am in zone 10a. It is amazing how it sets fruit with the 500 chilling hours required.
The good thing is: the tree is in ground so even with the heat wave the fruits stay firm. The bad thing is: it is in the front yard so I canât do the tulle, it looks so ugly. I can only check the fruits once a day because it takes time to get in and out of the 6 ft high hardware cloth wrap around. Hopefully, when the heat wave subsides, I can pick them at the right time. We still have more to try later.
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Chinese eat it as well. I had it there. Not my favorite. A very acquired taste.
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Some grapes are starting to ripen for me, in the North (Qc, Can): From top to bottom: Somerset, Trollhaugen, Rene blanc. Also: Williamâs pride apple and Redstar plum.
Redstar, inside. I am hoping I picked this one early, because itâs nothing special. It looks and tastes like a bigger âwild plumâ (prunus nigra or americana). Sour, astringent, bitter, thick skin with juicy sweet aromatic flesh. Not bad, but not as good as other cold hardy plums like Purple heart and Toka. 23 °B.
My first cantaloup ever! A not so midget Minnesota midget.
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Brady,
I picked this âHoward Miracleâ today. They are fully ripe.
Do not look like yours. Maybe, I got an imposter?? They are clingstone, too.
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They resemble mine,except for the cling stone part.Was yours grafted and how do they taste?bb
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My HM was grafted in 2018. I thought it tasted decent at first and I could detect pineapple flavor. (usually cannot detect subtle flavor).
Unfortunately, I tasted Lavina soon after. It reduced Howard Miracle to a pedestrian level. No comparison except for the size. HM is almost twice the size. Lavina was the small one on the lower right corner.
.
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My husband eats these everyday. He has his own garden with his Bi and Bau. He has electric wiring all over them. I scratched my head at the beginning of the season thoughâŚWhat animals would want to eat those? I make soup for himâŚbut every other day is good for me.
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Hungry animals eat everything. 
Today I put the fiberglass window screen around different places in the back yard. It will stop the vines from growing outside the fence toward the hill so the animals donât see the fruits that clearly hopefully. They finished the neighborâs Anna apples, and started looking at my trees. The Anna was a big tree with a lot of fruits, but she said they were only good for apple butter.
Bi and Bau are very good. My mother made soup, or stuffed with meat and steamed in double boiler pot.
I love bitter gourd. I usually make simple soup. Boil it with pork spare rib ( rib cut up in about 1â chunk). I donât use plain water, I use chicken broth instead for better flavor. Season the soup with soy sauce or fish sauce and ground white/black pepper.
To lessen bitterness, cut those gourd in bite size (remove all seeds) and boil it in plain water for a few minutes. Rinse out all the water. Then, use these cooked pieces of gourd in the soup.
Some people slice it into thin slices and use it in scramble egg.
If I were you, I would let those gourds ripen more until the skin was paler green. The more unripe, the more bitter the taste.
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That all sounds great! I cooked with them for the first time last night - made a simple curry with onions, garlic, chilies, garam masala and tamarind. I like the slight bitterness and the texture. And yes, the younger ones were less tough but way more bitter. One went to seed and looks very pretty on the vine:
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These gourds are expensive in Southeast Asian grocery stores.
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I have to say, Iâm really impressed that you cooked and liked the bitter gourd for the first time. I grew up with it and it takes a loooong time for anyone I know to get used to it. Home cooks need to come up with tricky recipes for kids to even taste it.
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Yeah, we always eat when itâs getting mature/old, less bitter.
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