In July someone gave me some seed for "spiny cucumbers" that just appeared in his garden. He said they were probably West Indian gherkins, were pretty drought/heat tolerant due to their African heritage and and made great crunchy pickles. I planted two hills just for grins and giggles and am glad I just planted two! Very prolific! The vines are very thin and the leaves small.
As you can see from the cross section they are full of seed in relation to the fleshy area between seed and skin but the seeds are soft and not a bother like large cucumber seeds are. The taste is not bitter at all and the spines are not noticeable (at least to me) when you're munching on one. These are about 1 5/8" long, about 1" wide.
Right now I'm playing with using them in pickle recipes. On the left is a quart of a somewhat sweet/tart pickle that I've been munching on for a week. I cut the cukes in quarters lengthwise. In the middle is a pint of Korean style pickles and on the right is a pint of Gin & Tonic Pickles
from a recipe that someone asked me to try. That one has gin, tonic water, lime juice and lime slices in it. Those last two pickles were made just yesterday and need two days in the refrigerator before I try them. It took 20 cukes to make a quart and 10 to make a pint.
