This year's achocha harvest
I’m a member of the Heritage Seed Library, which means that I get five interesting seed packets every winter.
This year’s delivery included achocha seeds.
I sowed them in my greenhouse, and the plant was really vigorous and tried to take the over the world.
In the end, it didn’t produce a lot of fruit compared to the amount of plant growth – just one small plate of achochas (see the photo).
Now I need to find out what to use them for. They taste like cucumbers, but the skin is leathery and they contain large stony pips, so they’re not good for eating raw.
Apparently you can stuff them and bake them, but they’re tiny – about the size of my thumb – so it would be a lot of effort for a small starter.
Any ideas?
The Real Seeds gang recommend slicing them up and putting them on top of a pizza; apparently they also make nice pickles. You may find they produce more fruit outside next year – they don’t really need to be in a greenhouse & their rampant growth may be more manageable outside 🙂
Emma you say grw them outside, but where are you? I’m in the north of England. My rampant Achocha seem to be a bit yellow -is this normal? (I’m giving them tomato feed)
Jean
I’m in Oxfordshire, Jean. I know someone growing achocha successfully in a polytunnel in Wales.
Achocha leaves aren’t naturally a dark green, but it sounds as though yours might need a bigger dose of nitrogen than they’re getting from the tomato feed.
Pickle them!
That’s not a bad idea, but should I remove the pips first?
Yes, I would slice them in two, take out the pips, lay them in salt overnight, rinse them and then add the vinegar.
Or if you get them at just the right time you could use them as a Picalilli ingredient as they are usually a bit more crunchy than Cucumber.
I am familiar with them from the countries around the Black Sea where they are fairly well known and grown.
I am going to give growing Padron Peppers a go next year. If you fancy trying these let me know and i will send you some seeds.
I’ve now pickled them — we’ll see how they turn out.
It’s interesting you’re saying you’re familiar with them from the countries around the Black Sea. I spent a year in Georgia, but I don’t remember ever seeing them there.
I think I’ve only tasted Padrón Peppers once, in Madrid. They were very nice, but I doubt they’ll be as nice if grown here — I’m definitely not that impressed with the strength of my home-grown jalapeños. Have you got reason to believe they’ll mature well here?