The Best Little Pickles You've Never Heard Of

 

Jar of freshly started pickles (right), and after 6 days of fermenting (left).

Not a melon or a cucumber, but something entirely different, Mexican gherkins are tiny, bite sized fruits that look like mini watermelons and taste like a lemony cucumber.  I got some seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and planted two vines, surrounding them with large tomato cages so they'd have something to scramble up on.

They took awhile to start producing, (the seedlings are very tiny) and they like warm weather, but once they got going, they produced huge amounts of  little, dangling fruit.  In fact, I had so many I decided to try pickling some, though I like them raw in salads and also in soup and stew, tossed in right before eating.  

I fermented them because it's so easy, and the beneficial bacteria produced during the fermentation process manufacture additional vitamins and enzymes (Mexican gherkins are already quite high in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals).  Plus fermented products add valuable probiotics to the diet.

After one delicious crunch of gherkin pickle, I was sold.  This is where they really shine!  Here's a simple recipe if you're lucky enough to find some fruits at a farmers' market, or grow your own.

Half fill a clean quart jar with rinsed gherkins, no peeling necessary,

Add a handful of spices of your choice.  I used garlic, fresh thyme and oregano.

Fill the jar up with gherkins, leaving 1 inch headspace on top.

Make a brine solution with 1 Tbs. non iodized salt (I like Himalayan pink salt) and 1 pint unchlorinated water.  Stir till the salt is dissolved, then pour over the gherkins till they are covered, but leaving that 1 inch headspace.

Cap the jar tightly and turn upside down, shaking gently to dislodge any air bubbles.

One last necessary step is to weight down the pickles so they stay under the brine, else they can mold on top.  Most sources say to stuff a zip lock bag filled with brine solution on top of the pickles to hold them under the brine.  But I don't like using plastic, so I invested in some ceramic discs made for this purpose that work beautifully.  You can also use a smaller jar that fits inside the fermentation jar.

Label the jar with the date and contents and put it on a saucer in a dark spot in your kitchen. 

The pickles will be ready in 1 - 2 weeks, depending on the air temperature and how tart you like them.  Start tasting after a week.  These delicious little pickles will keep in the fridge for many months, if they last that long!