The Wonderful Achocha?

I've done my talk on unusual veg quite few times now ( a few dozen!), it's a really popular one and one I love doing. I just love talking about all these unusual foods that my kids think are normal yet people have never heard of. In fact I love it so much that I've put together a second talk on the subject and garden clubs seem keen to have me back with that one as well! 

One thing I do get a lot from it is often people telling me they've grown something from the list and didn't like. Normally it's Achochas or Cucamelons. 

Each time I have the same answer -

Growing From Mouldy Seed

I'm always amazed by seeds, as I'm sure many of you are. all that potential saved up in that little package. 

Last year I saved some Fat Baby Achocha seeds (a type of exploding cucumbers), although they weren't an incredible veg they were still interesting and tasty enough to be worth growing again at some point. 

Mouldy seeds

I saved the seed in an old medicine bottle once I'd dried them and just to make sure I added some rice to absorb any moisture left in them. 

I obviously got it wrong somewhere down the line and when I came to use them a few weeks ago they were mouldy, you could smell the mould on them before you could see it. I really didn't fancy spending out again on these seeds so I thought I'd just sow them anyway, mould and all, and see what happened.

Seeds germinating

I sowed them thickly, left them a week or so in the greenhouse and ended up with a pretty much 100% germination rate! I really didn't think they would germinate, so I'm pretty pleased.

Grown on for a few days

A ripe fruit from last summer.

I'll make sure I'll grow a few plants this year from my seedlings and I'll save a new batch of seeds, picking out the best fruit to save from. This time I'll make sure they're 100% dry before I store them. 

How does everyone else dry their seeds for seed Saving? 

Is there a way that you can check how dry they are before storing them?

Fat Baby Achocha

Lots and lots of veg is ready at the moment. We had a massive dinner last night with lots of veg from the garden but there's lots of unusual stuff coming ready now as well. 

These Fat Baby Achocha's are just ready now in the greenhouse (with more nearly ready outside). They're a weird veg covered in little spines, but they're soft to the touch.

When you eat them they taste a little like a cucumber and I've read that you can cook and use them like a green pepper, although I'm yet to try that. They grow really well, and although they've taken a little bit of time to start fruiting I think a bit of that is down to the year we're having. They grow much like a cucamelon with a thin climbing vine that spreads everywhere given half a chance. 

The girls seem to like them and my youngest, who is just getting good at stringing words together to make sentences said:  "Good... With biscuit." when she tried one. I think I'll keep it firmly in the savoury camp for now! 

Who else has eaten this unusual veg? Does anyone have any tips for using it?