Look what I found

[shelora]

My local farmer's market turned up this wonderful specimen today. I have never seen this available in Canada, especially grown locally. Sunwing Farms here on Vancouver Island only has one vine and were thrilled that I knew the English (Spanish) name - Chayote. One of the farmers there called it palm squash because at a certain angle it looks like two hands pressed together. They had a Chinese name for it, but I didn't write it down, but will get it next time I go shopping.

Que milagro!

[fifi]

Very cool. I don't see why they wouldn't grow there. The production cycle isn't that long. We discussed this in the Louisiana forum here. Ours don't have the spiny things and are smooth. They are called mirlitons here (before we knew that they were called chayotes in Mexico) and have just become common in the markets here in the last few years.

[BarbaraY]

Nice find! Now what are you going to do with it?

They are found in our local stores on occasion but without the spines. I like them but seldom buy them. Don't know why.

[anzu]

The Chinese name is fo shou gua 佛手瓜. This means "Buddha's hands melon" as the shape is meant to resemble the way some Buddhists put their hands together while praying.

I've given the name in Mandarin. You may have been told it in Cantonese. That is, I think, fat shau kwa.

Happy eating!

[shelora]

Nice find! Now what are you going to do with it?

I peeled it and to my surprise it had very little in the way of a seed - miniscule at best. Lots of meat though and I proceeded to slice it up and stewed it along with fresh tomatoes, onions, garlic, leftover chicken, hominy corn and chipotle en adobo for a gentle heat. Simple dish that works with leftovers and time constraints.

I'm going back for another one of those hairy chayotes.

[esperanza]

I hope you cooked and ate the seed along with the pale green meat of the chayote. Most of us here think the tender white seed is the prized part of the vegetable.

You'd love seeing how the vines grow, above the ground on wires with the chayotes hanging in the air. When I drive people near the chayote farms here, I always ask them the trick question: What do you think that is? Inevitably they think the fields are vineyards. Indeed they do look like that.