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Post by bixaorellana on May 23, 2012 6:18:35 GMT
Yes, I did just start a whole thread in honor of my mirliton vines! If they stay beautiful, I hope to add to the thread later. In the meantime, anyone else who has anything to say about mirlitons/chayotes/choko marrow/su-sus, feel free.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 23, 2012 6:18:56 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2012 10:25:35 GMT
Oh WOW!!! Stunning pics!!! And, I am tickled that you are growing these there!! Do they feature in the cuisine there Bixa? I don't grow them anymore because they take up so much room and sprawl as much and as fast as a kudzu, covering everything. They are plentiful enough at the market when in season. Someone here whom we both know made a 'mirliton garage' by building a pvc frame big enough for his car and then allowed a mirliton to cover it. ;D Great idea for a shade house now that I think about it....hmmmmmmmmmm....
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Post by Breeze on May 23, 2012 13:10:29 GMT
I want that blue over my garden. It would set off all my flowers so well. Do I have to come to Mexico to see it?
We've been planning a garage for years but just can't site it. Maybe a mirliton garage would give us summer shade. However, I wonder if I'd have time to grow one in our shortish growing season.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 23, 2012 15:50:03 GMT
Casimira, mirliton = chayote, which from all indications was first cultivated in Mexico & is a valued vegetable here. www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/1492/chayote.htmlThere are many varieties sold here -- very dark green, spiny, tiny white ones, great big almost white ones, etc. I planted mine late. The neighbor next door is harvesting his. When I first moved to New Orleans, it seemed everyone had a mirliton arbor in the back yard & how to keep the root from freezing was a popular garden conversation topic. It now occurs to me that a whole generation of people who were late middle-aged or old when I was in my early twenties have died off, apparently taking their mirliton arbors, their fig tree pruning skills, their fava beans in time for Easter plantings with them. I lived on Pritchard Place in 1971 and all around me in Carrollton were older people, many of them of Italian or Chinese background, tending traditional crops in traditional ways. One man told me that he used to pasture his dad's cows in all that area around there. PVC sounds like a workable idea. I'm pretty sure the most popular mirliton arbor material used to be that big metal mesh used for laying driveways. Well, Breeze, I guess you'll just have to come see for yourself! As I look out right now, the sky is a glaring gray, so it's not always a picture-perfect day here. (but we do have a 365 day growing season -- ) Where are you? This article says chayote needs a 150 day growing season between hard frosts. www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/1980-11-01/Growing-Chayote-Vegetable-Pear.aspxThey will often start sending out a growing tip if left out at room temperature. I'm thinking if you got one in the fall or winter and kept it in the house, you could plant it out at the first opportunity in Spring.
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2012 17:15:55 GMT
Ah, I finally got to see the photos now that I am at home with an unfiltered 'puter. It kind of reminds me of kudzu, which was always reaching out with its tendrils, several centimeters more every day.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 23, 2012 17:43:02 GMT
Yeah, I already need to take more pictures. Those were taken on May 19, at around quarter of two in the afternoon. The little fruits are significantly bigger now and yesterday I added more strings, all of which are probably furiously degrading in the sunlight, even as I type.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 31, 2012 18:26:48 GMT
Please add your own mirliton pics here if you wish, or start threads in glorification of other edible or ornamental delights. These pictures were taken yesterday, May 30. I found a way to add some more strings, but the sight of a nearby yard which has been turned into a cave by the chayote vines was chastening.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 31, 2012 18:29:11 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 31, 2012 21:00:10 GMT
Are the pods good for anything?
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Post by fumobici on May 31, 2012 21:40:03 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2012 17:34:43 GMT
Great shots Bixa!! About how many do you think you'll yield? And, please do share with us how you're going to prepare them after you do. (And,again,that blue blue sky you get there!! Gorgeous!)
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 5, 2012 3:52:22 GMT
They're not pods, Kerouac, but a member of the squash family, with dense but moist flesh & a single flat seed. This is a web picture of one cut in half: Those are some wonderful-sounding recipes in Fumobici's link, and most of them new to me. In Louisiana they're often cut in half, boiled, scooped out, then stuffed with a mixture of the flesh,bread crumbs, shrimp &/or crab, & seasonings, then baked. Except for when they're to be stuffed, I always peel them. They are nice steamed or turned raw into slaw. Cut in half then thinly sliced cross-wise, they're a lovely stand-in for snow peas. I recently tossed cubes of mirliton into spaghetti sauce to simmer along with meatballs. It was absolutely lovely. Thank you, Casimira! It takes a special kind of person to appreciate loving shots of vegetables growing. I'm really going to have to think up ways of using them, as they're developing furiously. Today I noticed the strings are sort of sagging under the weight. I'll share any excess with the neighbors. These pictures were taken yesterday & the fruits aren't really as big as they look. I only have a couple that could be harvested so far.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 11, 2012 21:57:54 GMT
I think I just prefer the leaves and tendrils. The obscene fruit are just overkill.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 15, 2012 4:42:15 GMT
Huh? Oh .................. by george! ................
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2012 18:42:22 GMT
I dunno... they look dangerous. You did see Invasion of the Body Snatchers, didn't you?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2012 22:57:59 GMT
JEEZ Kerouac, first PODS, and then, Invasion of the Body Snatchers....you've seen too many movies or lived in the city too long I suppose they could be used as missiles,I would hate to get whacked in the head or anywhere else with one. Just beautiful Bixa. I have seen a few vines around town,I'll try to get some pics. I remember after Hurricane Katrina,people went into panic mode that they wouldn't have mirlitons for the upcoming Thanksgiving dinner,it's such a mainstay on the table that day.
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Post by mich64 on Jun 16, 2012 0:22:14 GMT
I know nothing about mirlitons? Are they a squash? What color do they ripen too? At first I thought it was just a climbing vine until I saw the large, as Kerouac describes, pods.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 16, 2012 1:51:26 GMT
Mich, to quote wikipedia, mirliton "is an edible plant belonging to the gourd family Cucurbitaceae, along with melons, cucumbers and squash."
They don't change color, just get bigger. The flesh is crisp and moist when raw, similar to apple, and with a taste between water chestnut and fresh peas, maybe.
It's lovely in stir-fries and holds up quite well to being simmered in tomato sauce. When used in something more watery, you have to be careful not to cook it to mush.
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Post by mich64 on Jun 16, 2012 2:51:18 GMT
Thank you Bixa!
How is served for Thanksgiving dinner? Is it baked?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 19, 2012 10:38:41 GMT
Mich asked:
How is served for Thanksgiving dinner? Is it baked?
Mich, see Bixa's reply #12
How funny! This weekend a neighbor brought by a bunch of plants to donate to the school garden I volunteer for. Among the donations were 2 lone mirlitons. I shuddered and giggled.
In the meantime, I think I saw a mirliton arbor last evening in the most unlikely of front gardens along S. Carrollton Ave. I have to go back and scope it out.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 19, 2012 17:43:49 GMT
I did go and take a look see at what I thought was a bit of mirliton madness going on! Sure enough, and you have to understand, this is on an avenue where one would not see this growing, formal is the name of the garden style along here. (In fact, I'm sure some of their neighbors are whispering among themselves "how tacky" .) So imagine my delight in seeing this!! Not as purty as yours Bixa. But,someone went to an awful lot of work to build this structure!
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 19, 2012 20:11:53 GMT
Ohhhh! Yeah, I was thinking it was one of the grand houses on South Carrollton that was revealing rural roots.
Love the juxtaposition of the fancy fleur de lis fence next to the comestible covering. They spared nothing on the arbor, did they?!
I do love your 2nd pic, especially, with that perfectly placed curl.
This may sound like sour grapes, but that kind of trellis can be contraindicated for mirliton, passion fruit, or anything else that grows rampantly. I lived in a house that had an outside corridor covered with a widely spaced iron trellis over which someone had put chicken fencing, then planted Mexican honeysuckle (Lonicera pilosa) to scramble over it. When I moved in, looking up at the trellis yielded a view of thickly packed, dusty dead leaves. Only after cutting away the chicken fencing, pruning the vine, then judiciously stringing some wires was I able to enjoy the planting. I then tackled the front part of the yard which also had a ceiling of chicken fencing effectively trapping all the passion fruit.
Just to clarify for Mich ~~ it's the baked version that is part of a traditional Louisiana Thanksgiving.
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Post by mich64 on Jun 19, 2012 22:55:22 GMT
Thank you Casi and Bixa for how it is eaten at Thanksgiving.
The vines of the plant remind me so much of my morning glories. I will have to post a picture of them in the fall once they are full grown and have climbed the posts of my deck. I have the posts covered in a mesh for them to climb and by fall they are so full and blooming each morning with the most beautiful colors, pinks, purples and blues.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 20, 2012 1:45:13 GMT
The trellis is a bit OTT I have to admit, and, yes, I can see why it would not be well suited for mirliton or passion fruit and the like. I have to admire their spunk though for going all out, especially the neighborhood they are in.
I love ,love the tendrils and curls these vines produce.
One of your earlier closeups of them Bixa really highlights how graceful and elegant they are.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 29, 2012 6:53:56 GMT
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Post by patricklondon on Aug 29, 2012 7:44:54 GMT
Good grief. I'm saying nothing.
Except: quite a lot of Bengali families near me are in the habit of building elaborate trellis pergolas in their back gardens and growing some sort of squash over them (not that they often need much shade from the sun in London) - but since most of them are fairly devout Muslims, I'd be surprised if they're that sort!
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Post by htmb on Aug 29, 2012 22:53:53 GMT
What's the average size of your mirlitons, bixa? I'm wondering if I have ever seen any growing. Surely they must grow in Florida. Maybe south Florida?
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 30, 2012 6:08:14 GMT
Heh heh, Patrick you're making me think I should have put the pics inside my oversized coat, then hissed at people from the shadows to come look at them. I'd be curious to know what kind of squash is favored by those Bengali families. Htmb, they can get much bigger than the ones in my pictures. A friend has a vine from a start I gave her. It's growing on a chain link fence & is very robust with the chayotes a third bigger than mine. I do try to pick mine while they're still quite tender, though. Just went outside & measured a couple that are about ready to pick. Nice pickable size is @4 1/2" top to bottom & 3" at the widest part. You could grow them in your part of Florida if you kept the root from freezing every year. In Louisiana, people generally put a bushel basket full of leaves over the root to protect it.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 30, 2012 6:16:56 GMT
I think they were an inspiration for Fernando Botero.
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