>BITTER MELON is available in Asian and Farmer's markets and in a supplement >form. Technically a summer squash rather than a melon, its lumpy, ridged >skin and flesh are the color of pale jade and it's similar in size and shape >to a cucumber. Bitter melon is a traditional diabetic remedy throughout the >Far East. In clinical tests, bitter melon inhibits glucose absorption, >increases insulin flow and has insulin-like effects.
I took some of Seeds of Changes lemon cucumbers as a gift to my favorite Asian restaurant. They said 'Melon, not cucumber.' I said 'No, you heathens, this is a cucumber, that's the irony!' their chef, with a cleaver in one hand and a LONG lemon cucumber in the other came out and said, through a translator: these two are the same. They are both MELON' At that point, I said 'well, fancy that, what a fool I've been!' I'm wondering, though, if the lemon cucumber were not 'sold as' a melon in the rest of the world (the ball nature being the uniqueness of this variety) I am aware, of course, that the cucumber is a variety of summer squash. -Allan
