This summer I had cucumbers climbing all over my garden, from the cream-colored orbs of my Dragon’s Eggs to the slender and striated Metki Painted Serpents. But the biggest crowd pleasers of the season have got to be these little guys — Mexican Sour Gherkins.
Looking like lilliputian watermelons with their distinctive dark and light green “rinds,” they make up in character what they lack in size. The Mexican Sour Gherkin (Melothria scabra) is an heirloom native to Mexico and Central America, where it’s known as sandita (little watermelon). But it tastes neither sour nor watermelon-y; the palm-sized fruit is bright and tangy on the tongue, like cucumber with a twist of lemon. A cucamelon, if you will.
Mexican Sour Gherkins have been around since pre-Columbian times, but were not brought into botanical classification until the mid-1800s. Despite being a member of the Cucurbitaceae family, they’re only distantly related to the cucumber and will not cross with other cucumber varieties. They’re also said to be the most cold-tolerant of all cukes, and will continue to fruit until the first frost. (Seeing as we don’t get frost here in zone 10b, I’m hoping to sow a second crop this fall for winter harvesting!)
The vines are more delicate and compact than those of typical cucumbers, and in peak season, my trellises are covered with handfuls of gherkins peeking out from between ivy-shaped leaves.
Growing from teeny tiny blossoms, they never get more than an inch or so long and tend to drop from the vines as soon as they’re ripe.
True to their gherkin namesake, these cucumbers are well suited to pickling whole. You may be familiar with another term for those pint-sized pickles — cornichon, the French word for gherkin. In various Spanish dialects and Native American tongues, the cukes are known by a myriad of monikers that ultimately translates into mouse melon.
But no matter what you call it (personally, I’m partial to cucamelon), this variety is now a summer staple for me. Cute, crunchy, perfect for pickling — and I’ll share one of my favorite recipes, a classic bread ‘n butter, in my next post!
17 Comments
Megan
July 5, 2014 at 7:05 pmWe planted these this year for the first time. We didn’t use a trellis to start with and they started to take over the whole yard! Definitely know better for next year. 😉
Linda Ly
July 5, 2014 at 7:32 pmFor being such prolific plants, their leaves are deceptively small compared to other cucumbers!
Jenny
January 27, 2014 at 8:48 pmI want to grow these! How many seeds did you plant? Approximately how many gherkins grew on one vine? Thanks.
Linda Ly
January 28, 2014 at 10:04 pmI sowed one seed every 3-4 inches and probably had a 4-foot row. I’m not really sure how many gherkins grow per vine, dozens? I had several plants going up a trellis so I harvested a lot!
giannis
September 11, 2013 at 3:11 amHi am Giannis Doskaris from Greece. I would to ask what is the harvest of the vine? What is the taste?
Linda Ly
September 11, 2013 at 4:33 amIt tastes like a tart cucumber. See post above! ^
elisse
August 22, 2013 at 4:29 pmLove these! I got the plants from The Drunken Botanist seed collection at Territorial Seed Company- and they are the first vines of Any kind that have ever done well in our so. WV garden!! They are adorable, too! I’m about to pickle 100+ of them so we can throw them in cocktails instead of olives or onions! 🙂
bridget in Cleveland
August 2, 2013 at 4:41 pmOur vine is growing madly and lots of tiny fruit. How will I know when they are ripe?
Linda Ly
August 2, 2013 at 5:16 pmIf they fall off the vine easily, they’re ripe. Mine have never grown to be more than an inch long.
PJ
March 26, 2013 at 2:32 amthese are cool, I read this post back last year but the cucamelons weren’t available in the UK then – they’re all over the news now AND I can finally buy the seeds! from this site: http://www.suttons.co.uk/
Suegeiger53
October 28, 2012 at 11:30 pmI live in North Dakota and like the fact that these little guys can handle some coolness. I would LOVE to plant some of these but have mnever seen or heard of anything like them. Do you know where I could possibly order seed for these ffrom some place????? Sure would appreciate any help you could offer me. I love to can, love your site, stumbled on it by accident. But got you on Pinterest now!!!!!!!!!!!!
Linda Ly
October 30, 2012 at 7:19 pmThanks for the love! My seeds came from http://rareseeds.com.
elisse
August 22, 2013 at 3:30 pmI got my plants from the Drunken Botanist Seed Collection at Territorial Seed Company and they did Great- THE first cucumber/squash/melon vine of Any kind that’s done well in our so. WV garden!
Misti @oceanicwilderness.com
September 26, 2012 at 2:00 pmInteresting (here via Small Measure) cucumbers. We have a smaller, similar, native Melothria pendula but I’m not sure it is edible. Will have to investigate these a bit more! (love your blog so far!)
Linda Ly
September 30, 2012 at 4:53 amThank you Misti! Please do stick around!
Bell and Star
September 24, 2012 at 9:47 amIt’s my first year growing them and I am hooked! I’ll definitely be giving them a prime spot in the garden next year as my harvest was really measly this time.
Dallasgardenbuzz
September 22, 2012 at 7:19 amLove the look of these and imaging the taste. did you grown the vine from seeds or transplant. I bought a transplant and it grew all over the fence but the little blossoms never developed any further.