Eat your bonsai: Akebi edition

NaoTK

Chumono
Messages
670
Reaction score
3,600
Location
Western Oregon
This akebi was growing in Alan Taft's backyard for over a decade and I dug it up a couple years ago. The trunk is over 6" wide which is huge for akebi. It fruited well this year.

We stuffed the pods with miso pork and pan fried. The fruit was not worth eating but the pod is a nice vegetable, somewhere between eggplant and bitter melon.

1665598306015.png
1665598536750.png
1665598573783.png
1665598586811.png
 

ShadyStump

Imperial Masterpiece
Messages
5,885
Reaction score
9,732
Location
Southern Colorado, USA
USDA Zone
6a
This akebi was growing in Alan Taft's backyard for over a decade and I dug it up a couple years ago. The trunk is over 6" wide which is huge for akebi. It fruited well this year.

We stuffed the pods with miso pork and pan fried. The fruit was not worth eating but the pod is a nice vegetable, somewhere between eggplant and bitter melon.

View attachment 458990
View attachment 458991
View attachment 458992
View attachment 458993
I've always wanted to try growing these, just for the fun. Not sure how they'd fair in my climate.
 

Leo in N E Illinois

The Professor
Messages
11,337
Reaction score
23,253
Location
on the IL-WI border, a mile from ''da Lake''
USDA Zone
5b
@NaoTK - looks delicious, but your mention of bitter melon gives this fat old European American pause.

A friend of mine from Nepal, tried to get me "acclimated" to eating bitter melon as a veggie. I was amazed at how bitter it was. I could not learn to enjoy bitter melon regardless of how many different ways she made it. If I plant a akebia vine, ill give the fruit away to a neighbor. Fortunately, I live in a cosmopolitan area, someone will enjoy it. They are handsome vines.
 

NaoTK

Chumono
Messages
670
Reaction score
3,600
Location
Western Oregon
@NaoTK - looks delicious, but your mention of bitter melon gives this fat old European American pause.

A friend of mine from Nepal, tried to get me "acclimated" to eating bitter melon as a veggie. I was amazed at how bitter it was. I could not learn to enjoy bitter melon regardless of how many different ways she made it. If I plant a akebia vine, ill give the fruit away to a neighbor. Fortunately, I live in a cosmopolitan area, someone will enjoy it. They are handsome vines.
I may have overstated the bitterness so here is a graph along with other popular bitter vegetables. Japanese love bitter

1665602239832.png
 

ShadyStump

Imperial Masterpiece
Messages
5,885
Reaction score
9,732
Location
Southern Colorado, USA
USDA Zone
6a
@NaoTK , can I ask your growing zone? I recall reading once that these rarely fruit in many of the places that they've become invasive because the growing season is too short. I wonder if they'd fruit in my region at all.
 

Leo in N E Illinois

The Professor
Messages
11,337
Reaction score
23,253
Location
on the IL-WI border, a mile from ''da Lake''
USDA Zone
5b
I may have overstated the bitterness so here is a graph along with other popular bitter vegetables. Japanese love bitter

View attachment 459002

Less bitter than Radicchio puts it in my "edible" range, I have a friend in Milwaukee with a big old vine, I'll check to see if he's got fruit this year.
 

NaoTK

Chumono
Messages
670
Reaction score
3,600
Location
Western Oregon
@NaoTK , can I ask your growing zone? I recall reading once that these rarely fruit in many of the places that they've become invasive because the growing season is too short. I wonder if they'd fruit in my region at all.
I think we are zone 8 near Portland OR. It rarely gets below 15F.

Akebi needs a different plant to pollinate so I could see a sterile bunch of clones happening.
 

Maiden69

Masterpiece
Messages
2,306
Reaction score
3,499
Location
Boerne, TX
USDA Zone
8b
Japanese love bitter
So does the Vietnamese lol
I think it's a Pacific coast Asian thing... I have a lot of friends from that area and they all love sour stuff. Filipino, Vietnamese, Guamanian, Samoan. I hate sour, LOL. Tamarind is the most sour thing I like, and a lot of times I make syrup for shaved ice and add a lot of sugar.
1665660503906.png

I got to say that those things cooked look like an oversized bratwurst.
 
Top Bottom