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Shark Fin Melon Chilacoyote Cucurbita Ficifolia Seeds
Packet of 10+ home grown seeds!
This fella is grown just like you would with any other pumpkin or melon vine.
It’s a vegetable that is grown in heaps of places on a huge scale since back in the 1500’s and because of this it has a heap of names.
I will get them out of the way first.
Abobora-chila, abobora gila, alcayota, angel’s hair, angel’s hair pumpkin, angel’s hair, Asian pumpkin, black-seeded gourd, black-seed squash, black seeded pumpkin, black seed squash, boga la kimasai, cabell d’àngel, cabell d’àngel, cabello de angel, cabellos de angel, calabaza, calabaza cabellos de angel, calabaza china, calabaza de cabello de angel, cayote, chiberre, chila, chilacayota, chilacayote, chilacayotl, chilacoyote, chilacoyotl, chiverre, chiverri, cidra, courge a choucroute de cheveux d’ange, courge a choucroute de cheveux d’ange, courge a confiture, courge a feuilles de figuier, courge a graines noires, courge de Siam, dynia figolistna, feigenblattkurbis, fig-leafed gourd, fig-leaf gourd, fig-leaved gourd, figenbladgaeskar, figleaf gourd, fig leaf squash, fig leaved gourd, figovolistna buca, gila, istengyalulta tok, kahurura, kurodane kabocha, lacayote, lacoyote, laskatok, malabar gourd, malabar squash, mboga ya kimasai, melon de malabar, nahuatl, pie melon, potiron cheveux d’ange, potiron cheveux d’ange, sambo, shark fin melon, Siam pumpkin, sidra, silacayote, smokvolistna buca, teli tok, Thai marrow, thin vermicelli pumpkin, tykev fikolista, tykva figolistnaja, tzilacayote, victoria, viigilehine korvits, vitoria, zambo, zapallo, zucca del malabar, zucca del Siam and no doubt a whole heap more too!
It is also known by the following synonyms.
Cucurbita melanospermum, Cucurbita melanosperma, Pepo ficifolia, Cucurbita ficifolia f. leucosperma, Cucurbita ficifolia f. melanosperma, Cucurbita ficifolia var. mexicana, Cucurbita melanosperma, Cucurbita melanosperma, Cucurbita mexicana, Pepo ficifolia and Pepo malabaricus.
Every bit of the plant is edible and used as a staple food crop.
The large round or oval shaped fruit are cut open when ripe, the seeds are removed for replanting of roasting, and the white tender vermicelli like strands are just scooped out and added to Asian style soups and noodles as a cheap shark fin substitution.
They can be made into deserts, fermented into booze, or just used like you would with more common squash and zucchini.
The leaves, flowers and shoots are cooked as a green vegie and even the seeds can be roasted or fried. Sprinkle on a little salt, no bad at all, just like pepitos!
Note, sprouting or already germinating seeds are poisonous!
Do not sprout the seeds and eat them raw or it will make you crook!!!
The plant makes the germinating seeds poisonous to help make the delicate new shoots less likely to be eaten by the insects and critters. In my experience it works great.
So yeah, don’t eat the germinating seeds, but once the plant has a couple leaves on it the poisonous bit is worn off and you can cook and use every part for a feed.
Some places grow so much that it’s also used as a fodder crop for pigs, goats and cattle the way we feed reject B grade sweet potato and carrots to stock over here.
My chickens love them!
Super hardy plant and here where I am at 4671 Queensland Australia it produces fruit all year round, performing better in the warmer months, but still doing OK in the cool too.
Because of their hardiness and disease resistance they are used as a root stock in Japan, China, Germany and many other places for things like hybrid cucumbers and melons.
These weak modern plants would never survive or produce decent crops without being grafted onto this hardy root stock for protection and increased vigor.
Once they are though they kinda work like a parasite, relying on the Shark fin melon to provide all their needs and protect them from soil borne diseases all at the same time.
So yeah, I reckon that’s enough blah blah blah.
Super hardy, very tasty, easy to grow, looks cool, great root stock for Cucumbers, and it makes a decent fodder crop too.
What more could you want?
Grown by a friend of ours cos my place is currently a desert and I’m can’t justify replanting anything till we get some rain. Fingers crossed that’s very very soon…
