Nepalese meet their onion in Malvik

A lovely visit this evening from botanist Kamal Acharya and his wife Sharmila Phuyal​ and daughter. They taught me several new uses for my old plants!
For instance, we started indoors as it was pouring with rain outside and they noticed I was growing Andean vegetable Cyclanthera pedata (Achocha) in my living room and to my surprise told me it was commonly grown in Nepal and they not only used the small green fruits, but the top shoots and the black seeds. The latter are roasted, ground and mixed with salt, chili and perhaps lemon. The powder is also used as a flavouring in chutney :)
I enjoyed your visit! Welcome back another time when it’s not pouring with rain :)

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Kamal and Sharmila posing with Nepalese onion, Allium wallichii, one of the 80 in my book :)
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Sharmila and daughter posing with Nepalese onion, Allium wallichii, best I learned eaten with black lentils…
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Sharmila showing how she sucked nectar from Canna flowers as a child…
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:)
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Cyclanthera pedata (barela in Nepal), my living room climber just coming into flower. This Andean plant has been adopted by the Nepalese :)
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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA This is what I grew as Cyclanthera brachystachya “Fat Baby” in my old cold greenhouse in 2008. The picture was taken on 28th September.