About Bellingen Seedsavers

We are a group of like-minded growers of edible and useful heritage plant varieties in the Bellingen area of northeast New South Wales, Australia.

Our climate varies from frost-free coastal areas to inland river valleys and highlands with frosts. Bellingen has an average annual rainfall of 1507ml.

Saturday 16 March 2013

Choko or Chayote? - The most unappreciated vegetable in Australia!

"Chokos are commonly regarded as a boring vegetable; this mainly stems from ignorance about the correct time to harvest.

We don't expect a full size zucchini to have any flavour but for some reason we imagine that a full size choko should be tasty.

Start your harvest early by steaming the tender shoots and young leaves. Then pick the small, egg-sized chokos; these are simply delicious, with more flavour than most zucchinis. Steam them whole without peeling, chokos this size can be eaten raw, just like a cucumber.

A visitor from Mexico was horrified that we would even consider eating the bigger ones; apparently in Mexico they simply split them open to remove the nutritious and tasty seeds and feed the rest to the cows. I found it pretty funny that I had wasted my time for years removing the seed and throwing it away!

Chokos are native to the subtropics, perennial, very hardy, pest and disease free and so abundant. Compared to a zucchini, which is native to the Mediterranean and very vulnerable to powdery mildew, there is no contest about which one to grow if you live in warmer areas.

To plant a choko, all you need is a mature fruit from a kind neighbour or simply buy one from a fruit and vege shop. Keep it in the pantry until it sprouts and then dig a hole 12 cm deep. lay the choko on its side and cover with soil."

From Green Harvest Newsletter 

Productive Choko Vines - Successful Gardening with ...

www.annettemcfarlane.com/Stories/Choko.pdf
Productive Choko Vines – Love Them or Loathe Them? ©Annette McFarlane ... The choko (Sechium edule) is known by various names depending on the ...

No comments:

Post a Comment

LinkWithin



Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...