For the Farmer

As we note in the “Four-C’s”, growing Bitter Melon is an adventure. Whether growing it in quantity, whether on a hobby farm, a CSA, or at the large-scale cultivation level, we feel that producing at this scale provides unique challenge and excitement worthy of this unique gourd.

If you’re growing Bitter Melon in quantity, we imagine that you have (or are trying to build) a great constituency of adventurous and eager consumers. We’ve been in contact with growers who experiment with Bitter Melon from a variety of angles and for a variety of consumer and cultivator purposes. Some of the farming applications of Bitter Melon that we’ve come across include:

  1. Plans in the works for companion-seed planting in the highlands of Ecuador, growing Bitter Melon alongside tall greenery to be harvested, processed and sold as bio-diesel fuel
  2. Rows and rows of vines planted, harvested, and sold to buyers in local immigrant communities by participants in the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project, a non-profit partnership that assists immigrants with donated land and agriculture training to help them build toward commercial farming
  3. Community Supported Agriculture farmers testing out Bitter Melon as a part of their weekly farm shares and farm stands, challenging members with the foreign flavor and form. As one prospective grower told us: “this isn’t your average bread and butter vegetable!”

If Bitter Melon is part of your planting this year, please let us know where and how you grow it, and how your distribution has been going! Send us an email at info@bittermelon.org or contribute to our discussion forum which is coming soon.