Meet the Burr Gherkin

 

That's not a hedgehog in my palm -- it's a burr gherkin!

It looks like a little spiky cucumber.

(And to be honest, it kind of tastes like a little spiky cucumber.)

But it's not really a cucumber (same genus, different species).

It's my first year growing burr gherkins after I was gifted some seeds by a kind farmer friend (Thanks, Brittney!).

They have not been all that productive yet (I've only just harvested my second one) and the fruits are small, but I have been very impressed with their toughness and ability to tolerate heat, humidity, awful clay soil, and reflected heat from a brick wall. So far, the vines also seem to be ignored by herbivores, both insects and the rabbits that have ravaged other plants in my vegetable garden this year (e.g., Armenian cucumber and molokhia). 

Burr gherkin cut with cherry tomatoes for scale. The purple veggie sliced into this salad are actually rat tail radish seedpods!

I like burr gherkins, but the spines are definitely more intimidating than a typical cucumber's prickles. So far, I have tried rubbing off the burr gherkin's spines under running water using both a thumbnail and the side of a spoon. Both methods seem to work just fine and allowed me to eat the small fruit without attempting to peel it. I haven't tried eating it without removing the spines first. I think it would be painful.

Veggies Til the Cowpeas Come Home

This might just look like a hot mess, but it's actually hundreds of daikon seeds ripening on some of my biggest roots. The pods themselves are edible when green and younger, but now I think they're probably only good for seed-saving.

In my first year or two of gardening, I tried growing a lot of veggies in our solid clay soil.

Frustrated by my lack of success, I mostly gave up and focused on ornamentals.

Recently though, I've started tiptoeing my way back into growing food.

I've had some fair success with basil - including a couple of volunteer basil plants the last couple of years.

Last fall and again this spring, I planted daikon radishes (Raphanus sativus) from Sow True Seed. This crop plays multiple roles - the leaves function as a cover crop, the roots are edible, the seedpods are edible and any roots left in place should hopefully decay and thus work as a no-till soil amendment. The fall crop did OK last year despite a drought and the spring crop this year did even better, producing good-sized roots and literally thousands of seedpods.

I ate some of the pods (found I liked them best raw), but ultimately ended up just composting most of them. I'm allowing the pods to mature on some of the biggest roots to save seed and/or let them naturalize a bit.

Meanwhile, as the radishes bolt and fade in the summer heat, I've started some 'Southern Brown Sugar' cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata) - also from Sow True Seed - one of my favorite seed companies!) for the first time.

I'm very impressed with the germination on these seeds. I think almost all my seeds sprouted in under a week and seem to be off to a strong start!

Cowpeas looking good so far!

And then there's the tropical roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa), which I sowed in the garden about a month ago. Germination was a bit slow on these and the seedlings are fairly slow-growing. I'm a little worried that I should have started them indoors and that they won't have time to mature and flower in a single season. (I believe they're actually perennials in zone 9 and warmer, but they'll almost certainly behave like annuals here in zone 6-7.)

To read about roselle's edible uses, you can check out this publication from Purdue University.

Grow strong, little hibiscus!

Some Good News on the Obesity Front

The colorful solution to childhood obesity? Photo by muammerokumus

Obesity is a massive problem in the U.S. and many other countries around the planet.

Now apparently there is some good news in terms of childhood obesity dropping a bit in several U.S cities and states.

What sort of rocket science or other wizardry has been able to turn the tide?

Apparently, the improvement can be credited to children eating more fruits and vegetables and fewer unhealthy fried/processed foods.

Sometimes the answers to our problems are so simple.

And sometimes many of them can be found in the garden either directly (where said fruits and vegetables grow) or indirectly (virtues of hard work, growing what you consume and caring for an environment with the potential to nurture you).

Stay informed about gardening and healthy eating with free email updates.