Different varieties have differing degrees of bitterness. Of those that I have grown, the larger, thicker varieties (with smooth warts) were the least bitter, and are the type that I prefer. These were mostly Chinese varieties, such as "Taiwan Large". The Japanese variety "Abashi" is also smooth warted & mild. Those with pointed warts & thinner flesh were more bitter; a friend uses them for pickling. "Taiwan" and "Ant" were two of them, both small-fruited. You can reduce the bitterness by cutting into pieces after cleaning, and salting the pieces (this leeches out some of the bitterness) and/or by par-boiling the pieces before using them. Keeping the vines well watered also reduces the bitterness somewhat. Bitter melon should be used immature, before the fruit begins to ripen. Once ripe, the red jelly-like flesh that surrounds the seeds is sweet & edible; if dried, it can be added to rice to color it during cooking. The seeds themselves should not be eaten. Some of our Filipino friends eat the vine tips & young leaves as a vegetable, but they are far too bitter for my taste. The wife likes bitter melon, and as mentioned above, it helps to lower blood sugar. I've tried to grow enough to parboil & freeze for winter use, but she generally gives most of it away to friends (it surprises me that so many are interested!) She generally uses bitter melon in soups; our favorite is an egg soup with bitter melon, tomato, and chicken. Some of our Filipino friends add it to "pinakbet", a thick stew with eggplant, winter squash, lima beans, chayote squash, and pretty much whatever fresh vegetable is on hand. Even with the best variety & treatment to reduce bitterness, however, the taste is not for everyone.

I have a Hagley with a Mme. Julia Correvon and I don't personally care for it - to the point of trying to figure out how I'm going to fix it. If I look at the flowers right next to each other, they seems like they'd be OK together, but from any distance, they just don't look "right" to me. I also have a Hagley with a Jackmanii Superba, and I like those together a lot. In my garden, Hagley starts just a little before JS, but they're blooming together now, and I like both the flower shapes/sizes and colors together.

Agree with Carol that something you did last year caused loss of lots of liquid from the jars. That isn't supposed to happen but that is why the taste now. Can you tell us exactly which set of instructions you used of the many methods available? Or at least what was the source of the instructions? That would help us figure out what might have gone wrong. As to the pasta sauce, you'll need to define the ingredients you want it to include or what recipe you want to use. The label "pasta sauce" means very different things to many people. For some it means just plain tomato sauce, for others it is tomato sauce with meat, and to others it is tomato sauce with lots of other vegetables mixed in it and they are all canned very differently and may require pressure canning. Dave

seedyoulater, The tomato, chili and garden huck are all in the same family (Deadly Nightshade or SOLANACAEA) but each in a different genus (Lycopersicon, Capsicum and Solanum respectively). You would at least want your plants to be in the same genus to have a chance of crossing. The members of the genus Brassica (broccoli and its relatives), for example, are reknowned for their readiness to cross. Being in the same family however isn't enough and even being in the same genus, for the most part, isn't enough (Brassicas notwithstanding of course). The more distant the plants the more remote becomes the possibility of crossing. If you were assigning probabilities, the likelihood of crossing two members of the same family but belonging to different genera is, for the most part, so small it might as well be considered zero. There are always exceptions of course. Someone above mentioned their nervousness at the idea of crossing members if the family SOLANACAE because so many of them are poisonous (hence the common name DEADLY Nightshade). But if you managed to cross any plants of different genera, no matter what family they belonged to, I personally would want a full toxicolgy workup done before I ate any part if the newly created plant! Combining genes can have many unexpected and unlooked for results - the Flavrsvr (?spelling) tomato was a case in point. Created through genetic manipulation to maintain a firm skin/shell even when fully ripe, it was a smashing success from this point of view. Unfortunately, by all reports, it had a rather unpleasant taste. It it wasn't poisonous though. There was also a potato, created through genetic manipulation to resist a common potato pest that unfortunately made people nauseous. It too has been withdrawn. I guess that's why nature is designed the way she is. Nasty things usually cannot leap the species barrier without some intervention! Did I get carried away here or what!! Sorry.