The Cucamelon...the what??

Fresh picked from my garden

So I was excited to grow cucumbers in our raised garden this year. I grew them in a community garden one year and managed to keep them alive...so much so, we had them coming out our ears. So this year I decided I would fit them on a vertical trellis in our 4'x4' square foot garden. As luck would have it...I mistakenly did not plant cucumbers. I started noticing the fruit coming in looked more like a watermelon. Turns out I planted Cucamelon! I didn't even know such a thing existed. It's been a delicious mistake! We love this new snack. They taste like a cucumber but with a lemon like flavor to it. They are also nice and crunchy and get no bigger than a small grape tomato...or at least in my garden that's all the bigger they've gotten. Next year I will be sure to plant cucumbers, but I will find a place for these as well!

Melothria scabra is a vine grown for its edible fruit. Fruit are about the size of grapes and taste like cucumbers with a tinge of sourness. Vernacular names include mouse melon, Mexican sour gherkin, cucamelon, Mexican miniature watermelon and Mexican sour cucumber. This plant is native to Mexico and Central America, where it is called sandita (little watermelon).  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia