Exploding bitter melon

In the previous post, I mentioned buying a surprise bag of veggies from one of our graduate students. In the bag was a bitter melon, a veggie I've only read about in cooking magazines and cookbooks. I know it's used to make soup, but that's the extent of my knowledge.

So M and I looked at it in amazement and then set it on the counter. Perhaps we were both waiting for it to tell us what to do with it. But then Thursday morning I got up and found this:

It looks like some kind of crazy, scary lily. Disturbing and beautiful at the same time.

And now it's in the compost container waiting for it's burial in the plot that passes for a garden in our yard.