Anyone grow Caigua / Achocha / slipper gourd / Crow's beak vegetable?

Anyone grow Caigua?
I planted this yesterday. I’d appreciate any advice.
Thanks Max

I saw your post from 6 days ago, in the zero replies and since I don't know what Caigua is I did some searching.

It seem it is edible and that pollinators like it:

https://permies.com/t/138194/Edible-Plants-Pollinators-Love#1083831

I also found some information that it is also called "stuffing cucumber" or "slipper gourd".

Here is what Wikipedia says about the plant:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclanthera_pedata

This sounds interesting and I am wondering have you eaten it?

Are there recipes for this?  Wikipedia says it is stuffed with rice or meat after removing the seeds.

Ah! Thanks Anne -

I know it as Achocha, which sounds like a sneeze but is quite an ornamental edible vine. I grow it in the polytunnel usually, not this year - because it needs an early start and I didn't start anything !
Here's one of my 'blog posts on it. and this is some of my harvest form last year, they got caught slightly by the frost or there would have been more.:



Two different forms: one quite small and spiny (Cyclanthera brachystachya, 'fat baby') but tend to ripen earlier so is more reliable for me and the other (Cyclanthera pedata 'Bolivian giant') is more useful for stuffing sometimes these do not have spines. They are similar in flavour. When young, you can eat them raw like a crisp cucumber with slight courgette or capiscum notes. Nice as something different in a mixed salad or buffet. When they get older, you need to remove the seeds (keep to regrow) and the vegetable walls are a bit tougher, sp better cooked but still fairly bland in flavour. I made a nice chutney with some of mine.

I'm hoping my seeds from last year will still be viable, but there are several sources for them in the UK. These I got originally from real seeds I think

Edited to add - the spines are soft, not hard and are quite edible too

aha!! I grew this a few years ago when my mother in law gave me seeds for bitter melon and this came up instead!

When I asked my reliable sources (the old ladies in my neighborhood who have gardens) everyone remembered eating them as a kid in the country and nobody had seen one in years. I was happy to share them.
In my garden they are ripe just about at the time when my cucumbers poop out, so I use them raw as cucumbers in salads, etc. I stir fried them a few times as well (if you search "crow's beak vegetable" you find that in Bhutan they're called this and often used this way-- in Vietnam, there is another plant with this same name and YMMV, but it looks like they are cooked the same way). They inevitably produce WAY more than I can eat/use/share, so the rabbits get them. Rabbits love the vines/foliage, btw.
They are resistant to everything in my garden- especially the powdery mildew that kills the cukes.

(also they can be invasive. i think i pulled them out for a few years before they stopped coming back.)

@Max, i don't know what your weather is like or whether you sowed seeds or planted starts, but Nancy said something relevant- they needed an early start. My seeds took such a long time to come up that I assumed they were duds. Don't give up on yours if the seeds take a while.

I used to eat this growing up, Use a translator tool as the recipe is in Spanish https://cookpad.com/co/recetas/10427736-pepinos-rellenos