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Benincasa Hispida Wax Gourd Winter Melon Seeds
Packet of 10+ organically grown seeds!
These are the shorter stockier form of melon, and they grow on a vine just like a large cucumber.
Said to be a medicinal species they are super popular pretty much everywhere except here where they are a rarely seen novelty.
I reckon they need to be much more common than they currently are.
I also sell the other much longer type with rounded edged seeds too and if you chuck Melon in the search box up the top right hand side of every page you will have no dramas finding them and all the other cool melons we grow.
They are known as as many different names as there are places that grow them and here is a sampler of teh most common ones. Abobora d agua, ash gourd, ash pumpkin, bai dong gua, benincasa, Benincasa cylindrica, Benincasa hispida var. chieh-qua, Benincasa hispida var. hispida, Benincasa pruriens, Benincasa pruriens f. hispida, Benincasa vacua, bí bee, bí dao, calabaza, calabaza blanca, calabaza brana, calabaza China, Chinese moqua, Chinese preserving melon, Chinese squash, Chinese vegetable marrow, Chinese watermelon, Chinese winter melon, Courge a la cire, courge cireuse, Cucurbita alba, Cucurbita farinosa, Cucurbita hispida, Cucurbita littoralis, Cucurbita pruriens, Cucurbita vacua, Cucurbita villosa, doan gwa, dong gua, faeng, fuzzy melon, Gymnopetalum septemlobum, hairy melon, kubiindo, kubindo, kundor, kundur, kushmanda, Lagenaria dasistemon, Lagenaria dasystemon, Lagenaria leucantha var. clavata, Lagenaria leucantha var. hispida, Lagenaria siceraria var. hispida, Lagenaria vulgaris var. hispida, mafak khom, mafak mon, mafak mon khom, moqua, or the synonyms Benincasa cerifera, pasteque de Chine, petha, pethaa, prugelkurbis, tallow gourd, tougan, voksagurk, wachskurbis, wax gourd, white gourd,white gourd, white pumpkin, winter gourd, winter melon, yin dong gua, zit-kwa, zucca della cera, and the scientific name of Benincasa hispida.
Bloody awesome whatever you call them!
I better explain that despite being a melon, they are not at all sweet or sugary, low brix, perfect for diabetics or folks on a low sugar diet.
That doesn’t mean they are not delicious, just it is a bit of an adjustment for the Aussie palate to accept initially as you naturally expect that sweet kick.
So not sweet, but when eaten fully ripe they are crisp, juicy and delicious, super refreshing and awesome in summer when it’s hot. Despite being “Winter melons”, they can be grown all year round here at 4671 Queensland Australia and they store for ages.
Forum friends in China say they regularly keep them for a year or more.
The ripe fruit can be salted, brined, pickled or candied(amazingly good!), and the young still furry and green fruit are used as a vegetable, on par with zucchini or hairy melon.
They have the texture of watermelon when fully ripe or green coconut when a bit immature.
You can cook and eat the flowers and the shoots fried with a little garlic and sesame or chilli or soy sauce and seriously, they are bloody awesome!
The fruit can be left to mature to an enormous size, then diced for stews, curries, soups and I am telling you now, it’s fantastic in a roast!
Absorbs all the rich meaty goodness, without sucking up the fat!
For all intents and purposes they are just a cooler, rarer, savoury vegetable until they whiten up.
After that the flesh firms up a bit, changes from pale green to pure white, and the skin gets a cool waxy coating that protects the delicious flesh from bug attack.
That’s when the texture and flavour become more melony.
Still not sweet mind you, very little sugar at all, just crisp and refreshing.
Grown by us organically, no nasties, no chems, no problems!!!
