I accept it.  I’m officially old. I woke up with the sun, walked around the garden. Was excited to see that one bitter melon was ready to be harvested. I continued to look around at my various plants that include winged beans, chili peppers, lemon, calamansi, malunggay, sweet salad peppers, papayas, eggplants, green onions, chives, ginger, corn, pineapples, celery, tomatoes, and basil.  Can you tell that I’m having fun with this gardening thing?  As I walked around, I was trying to think about what I could make with one bitter melon.

Also as I was walking around, I was getting hungry for breakfast. I like a hearty savory breakfast and decided that I would make a bittermelon omelet for breakfast. I got so excited to create this garden-to-table dish and proceeded to harvest a couple of sweet salad peppers, some green onions, and chives for my omelet. I was so excited to start cooking even as I realized that this marks me as old.  That “shopping” in my garden is totally fun for me.

I chopped up some onions and garlic and sauteed it until the onions were translucent.

I chopped up the rest of the vegetables and added that to the pan. Then I just added some beaten eggs, seasoned with salt and pepper and cooked it through.  It was so easy to use these fresh ingredients.  Not even 5 minutes after I harvested the vegetables from my garden, it was on the plate and ready to be eaten.  Yummy and healthy.  Totally garden to table!  Living Hilo Style.

Note:  I saved the seeds from the bitter melon and peppers, and I saved the stump from the garlic and planted them after I finished eating breakfast.  If I can get the peppers to grow, I can share the seedlings with friends!  As far as the bitter melon seeds, I always throw them back in the ground in hopes that they will grow and be part of my current bittermelon patch and I can one day harvest enough bitter melon to share with friends.  I don’t know if the garlic will grow, but it won’t hurt to try.