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Achocha Fat Baby

Achocha Fat Baby

Okay, it’s cucumber time.  Emma already posted about her achocha ‘mouse melons’, and even devoted an entire podcast episode to it on Alternative Kitchen Garden last year, as well as a squidoo lens.

[update:  I just realized Emma probably posted about something else, ‘Melothria’, a few days ago.  Achocha is something she grew and reported on last year]

A look in the Seed Savers Exchange yearbook shows my friend Frank in Belgium as the sole member offering seeds for it.  I suspect he’s been growing it for years, and probably one of the people who introduced it to Europe.

I feel behind when it comes to posting on this one.

The insides look like this:

Achocha Fat Baby

The black things are the seeds, which you take out before eating and save for replanting.

Raw they taste something like a cucumber, and after being fried a bit like green pepper.

Except for the seeds, you can eat the whole thing.  I’m looking forward to trying this in different foods.  I’m not sure if I like it yet.

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Cucumber Time

The Dutch have an expression, komkommertijd, which translates to Cucumber Time.  According to Wikipedia this is called Silly Season in English.

It’s a very important time for journalists.

Literally it’s the time of year when news is so slow, because everyone is on vacation and out enjoying the sun somewhere, that journalists are so hungry for a story they are even willing to report on cucumber harvests.  It’s the time of year where there is often a rash of fake press releses, trying to catch journalists off guard.  Every once in a while a good joke gets pulled.

I don’t know about traditional journalism, but it’s getting awfully quiet in the garden blogging world right now.  Anyone reading this have any good stories about their cucumbers?

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Japenese Trifele Tomatoes

Japenese Trifele Tomatoes

These are Japanese Trifele Black, Yellow and Red tomatoes.  In spite of the name, these tomatoes come from Russia.  Apparently a scientist involved in the development of these tomatoes was Japanese.  At their largest, the red ones are about 5cm wide and the others 2-3cm.

The black version is available from a number of seed companies now, and have become a popular tomato to grow.  Just out of curiosity, I tracked down the red and yellow versions from a seed saver in Sweden and planted them too.  I also got an orange version from a seed saver in Belarus, but it came too late for planting this year.  Perhaps next year I’ll give it a try.

Green spots and uneven ripening seems to be a common trait of these tomatoes.  At first I thought it was intentional, but now I realize it’s more of a problem than a feature.  This isn’t as much of a problem with the black version.

The flavor of the black version is really excellent.  It has a very complex taste that’s a little on the sweet side, but there’s plenty of acidic taste too.  Rumor has it this is Raymond Blanc’s favorite tomato.  For those reading this from outside of the UK, Raymond Blanc is a French born TV celebrity chef who owns a chain of restaurants in the UK.

At best I would say the yellow one is uninteresting.  The plant is the earliest of the bunch, and probably the most prolific.  The plant is also a nice compact size.

The red one is not nice.  The flesh was very mealy and tasteless.  Perhaps this is due in part to the uneven ripening, so perhaps after I’ve had a chance to let some others get riper I will have a more positive impression.

I’ll certainly grow the black one again!