5. Good Organic Gardening - September-October 2016 AvxHome.in

TIME TO PLANT | choko
- OVER A -
fence
Choko
Sechium edule
There was a time when nearly every Aussie
backyard had a choko vine. Let’s reconsider
this humble veg — which is really a fruit
Did you know?
In the West Indies, the choko
is known as christophine after
Christopher Columbus, who’s said
to have introduced the fruit from
Central America.
Words Jennifer Stackhouse
The choko vine is often to be seen in
old gardens where it can be found
scrambling over the shed, outside
dunny or back fence. This is a plant
that is usually given little thought or attention
until fruit appears.
Want an easy harvest? Plant a choko. While
other gardeners tend more troublesome
crops such as tomatoes, cucumbers and
zucchini, the choko vine just grows and grows
and, when other crops are fading, produces
bountifully right through autumn.
Love it or hate it
Despite its generous growth and abundant
fruit, the choko is a much-maligned vegetable.
Many people dislike the flavour and texture of
chokos, while for others they bring back bad
memories. This is because for some members
of an older generation they stand for a time of
deprivation. Like the rabbit, the choko served
as a handy food during tough times such as
the Depression of the 1930s.
Even without childhood memories of the
Depression, chokos can be a confronting
vegetable. Left on the vine to mature, they
grow large and hard and are difficult to prepare.
Older chokos can also become fibrous.
Harvested young (at around 10cm long),
the choko is a delicious vegetable with many
uses in the kitchen as well as being a healthy
source of vitamin C and fibre. Add slices to
soups, stews or curries. Alternatively, it can be
stuffed and baked, or chopped and used as a
base for chutney.
Room to spread
Chokos are large, spreading vines. They need
some support to clamber on, such as a fence,
trellis or pergola. Left to their own devices,
they’ll invade trees or smother outbuildings.
Plants can reach 3m or more across and high.
The spreading vine produces masses of
large light-green fruit about the size of an
avocado or large pear. Mature fruit has large
crevices in the skin and can be slightly prickly.
Although used as a vegetable, the choko is
technically a fruit, with an outer skin and flesh
around a large seed.
Once established, the vine regrows each
spring, sprouting from a tuber in the ground.
The vine grows through the summer. It does
best in a sunny spot with fertile soil but grows
and fruits just about anywhere.
Getting started
It’s rare to find a choko plant for sale in a garden
centre, but fruit is available at greengrocers or
farmers’ markets from late summer to winter.
You may even be lucky enough to find a
CanStockPhoto
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