Rampant grower, leaves & fruits are excellent eating--my new favorite vegetable.
This grew to the top of the spruce (30'?)...Read More adjoining our garden the first year we grew it (the roofers were amused!), so we've limited it to an 8' stock-panel arch ever since. It seems to prefer a little shade, at least part of the day.
The growing tips/leaves (3') are excellent stewed with olive oil, salt, tomato & garlic (Sicilians call them "tenerumi") & served as a pasta sauce or soup--which is good, because you *want* to pick the shoots to control the plant! The tendrils are a bit stringy/chewy, so I remove those before cooking.
The fruits, picked 2-3' long, sliced & sauted in olive oil, have a texture a little like mushrooms, with a very slight smoky flavor, but if mixed with other flavors, they disappear in the background (like zucchini, but not watery).
The white flowers bloom at night .
The leaves are velvety (unlike prickly squash leaves).
Rampant grower, leaves & fruits are excellent eating--my new favorite vegetable.
This grew to the top of the spruce (30'?)...Read More