Wax Gourd or Winter Melon
Wax Gourd, also called White Gourd, is a fast-growing, long-season,
warm-climate vegetable. The plant produces fruits on vines, like the pumpkin on
groud, which can grow up to 50 pounds. Fruits can be stored in a cool place for
months and used later in winter time. Thus this gourd is called Tong Qwa,
meaning "Winter Melon" in Chinese. The unopened fruits can be kept fresh for a
long time, but the flesh shall be used in cooking within a few days once the
fruit is cut into pieces.
NOTE: Wax Gourd needs insects to carry out the pollinating process for setting
fruits. If the insects are not available in your area, the pollinating process
can be done manually, by picking up male flowers and transferring pollens
(face-to-face touching the center part of flowers) to femal flowers. This
process should be carried out when flowering is active during the daytime.
This variety produces large size Winter Melons, up to 50 pounds. Large fruit has
green skin without wax and pure white flesh inside for vegetable uses. This is
one of the most popular Winter Melon varieties in southern China and subtropical
Asia.
The winter melon (Chinese: 冬瓜; pinyin: dōngguā, and पेठा in Hindi, or Kumbalanga
in Malayalam), also called white gourd or ash gourd, is a vine grown for its
very large fruit, eaten as a vegetable. The fruit is fuzzy when young, giving
rise to the name fuzzy melon (Chinese: 毛瓜; pinyin: máoguā). By maturity, the
fruit loses its hairs and develops a waxy coating, giving rise to the name wax
gourd, and providing a long shelf life. The melon may grow as large as 1-2
metres in length. The word "melon" in the name is somewhat misleading, as the
fruit is not sweet.
Originally domesticated in Southeast Asia, the winter melon is now widely grown
in East Asia and South Asia as well. In North India it is cut into rectangular
pieces and boiled in a sugar syrup to create a translucent, almost clear candy
or sweet, and is often flavored with rose water. In this form it keeps and cans
well allowing it to be sold in canned form around the world. In South India it
is used to make curries.
The winter melon requires very warm weather to grow but can be kept through the
winter much like winter squash. The winter melon can typically be stored for 12
months. The melons are used in stir fry or to make winter melon soup, which is
often served in the scooped out melon, which has been intricately decorated by
scraping off the waxy coating.
Occasionally, it's used to produce a fruit drink which has a very unusual taste.
The shoots, tendrils, and leaves of the plant may also be eaten as greens.
A casaba is a type of winter melon.
Wax Gourd - Benincasa hispida
Also known as ash gourd or winter melon, this is arguably the largest edible
gourd. It is not uncommon for the round or oblong specimens to weigh in at 10 kg
(20 lb). Thought to have originated in Japan, it has long been used in China and
is widely known throughout Asia. Picked before it matures, it is used for the
famous dish Winter Melon Pond featuring a hollowed out, intricately cut melon as
both the cooking and serving vessel for that flavoursome soup.
Other Languages:
China: tung kwa
India: petha, petha-kaddu
Indonesia: bligo
Japan: tougan
Malaysia: kundur
Philippines: kundol
Thailand: fak-kib
Sri Lanka: alu-puhul |
