Local Saturday - West Indian Gherkins

Today, I am going to be as local as I can be.  Welcome to my back yard, where I will show you gherkins grown (with a major amount of assistance from enslaved African-Americans) by United States Founding Father Thomas Jefferson.

April 2016 - Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia

Well, not exactly by Thomas Jefferson, but I did buy the seeds at his former home, Monticello.

I have a Nebraska blogger to blame for this.  Last year, she blogged about growing something called Mexican Sour Gherkins, and even included a recipe for refrigerator Mexican Sour Gherkin Pickles. 

So when I saw the gherkin seeds for sale at Monticello when spouse and I visited, I grabbed them.  The problem is, though, that what I bought aren't Mexican sour gherkins.

This is what I bought.  Or, three plants to be exact, planted in a tub as the sunniest part of our back yard (which is fairly shaded) is our patio. 

Here's another view.  These are West Indian gherkins. (Actually, they are from Africa).  Next time, you might say, read the package.  But no loss - these are gherkins, and they are incredibly prolific.  After a slow start, they took off in our hot weather.

I would highly recommend trellising them.

So far (knock on lots of wood) they've had no pests or diseases.

This shows you the scale.  The gherkin pictured is ready for harvest - you have to get them small.

A baby.

Ready for harvest.


West Indian gherkins come covered in little spikes.  The plants are also a bit prickly, and you have to be careful.  I don't recommend picking these without gloves on, but my spouse's hands are hardened.  I would use gloves.

Our first harvest

You rub the spikes off with a towel, cut open and use like cucumbers.  You have to pick them a little more than thumb sized.  Once bigger, they would not be good eating.

We have a jar with some now, as we are making refrigerator pickles.  Spouse tasted raw, and said they taste just like cucumbers. Since our cucumbers are more or less done for at our community garden, this is a welcome harvest.

You could call them baby cucumbers.  And they are doing quite well in the big tub.

I hope we can call them delicious.  We will know in a few days.