Mexican Sour Gherkins

First harvest of the Mexican Sour Gherkin

This is the first year I've planted these...well, any gherkin, for that matter.  I've had the seeds for a while, bought them at Baker Creek a few years ago.  I finally got around to planting them because I wanted to make pickles and liked the idea of not having to cut them.

I planted late and really didn't think they would ever come up.  I spent a long time thinking I had pulled them by accident, confusing them with a weed. When they finally did grow, they grew up the cattle panel, across the panel and back and forth a few times.  Very prolific foliage!

These have taken much longer than 70 days to harvest as this is October and we've just had 2 nights of "almost" frost.  There's a little damage to the leaves at the very top, but there's more plump fruit than there were a few days ago too.  I suspect our marathon, week after week heat wave may have arrested the development of the fruit...or fried them.

I am hoping the cold of the past few days was a glitch and we can have a nice fall and prolonged harvest.  There are a lot of immature fruit on the vines right now.  Next year I would like to grow them on an arbor (bent cattle panel) so the fruit hang down away from the leaves for easier picking.  They are much smaller then the leaves and hide very well.  Sure are pretty though.....

I took what few gherkins I had and mixed with some vinegar, salt, sugar and cream of tartar.  I am not sure how long to wait for refrigerator pickles...maybe just as long as you can stand it, I guess.

Tuesday Twister