Remember pepquiños, also known as Mexican Sour Gherkins or cucamelons? I planted them in my garden last summer, and got oodles of the little mini-cukes off of my two or three climbing vines.
Well, on Friday all my posts concerning the little teaspoon-sized veggies started getting an unusual number of hits. People searching for pepquiños, and especially people looking for pepquiño seeds, were landing on my blog in mass numbers. Turns out the Rachael Ray Show did a segment with Rocco DiSpirito on Friday, in which DiSpirito named pepquiños one of his must-try foods for 2010.
When I clicked on the show’s link for a specialty market that sells pepquiños, however, I can see why people are searching for seed sources! At Marx Foods, the little cukes sell for a whopping $70 per pound (and if you only buy 4oz, the rate is $120 per pound)!
By that measure, I must’ve grown several hundred dollars worth of pepquiños last summer. I don’t know exactly how many pounds I got, but I think it was at least 5, probably more like 10. So, seriously, people, don’t buy pepquiños (they were out of stock on the Marx website anyway, probably because of the show). Just grow your own – they’re very easy and productive. Territorial Seed Company sells them under the name Mexican Sour Gherkins.
For more information, check out my other posts on Mexican Sour Gherkins, cucamelons, mouse melons, pepquiños, or whatever you want to call them here. (Maybe the upside of their appearance on Rachael Ray is that the name will get standardized).
Because I’m allergic to all melons, I thought it wise not to grow these. But while flipping through seed catalogs, I noticed them on offer by Seed Savers Exchange.
I’m a big fan of SSE–half of my seed collection comes from them!
Oh, good to know! I don’t think SSE had them last year. I like to support them when possible – thanks for the link.
[...] that’s the price at the Dupont Circle farmers market. Or for a really extreme example, I found out that pepquiños (aka Mexican Sour Gherkins) can cost $70-120 per pound; by that count, I probably [...]