Wikipedia
Chayote, also known as mirliton squash, is an edible plant belonging to the gourd family, Cucurbitaceae. Chayote was one of the several foods introduced to the Old World during the Columbian Exchange. Also during this period, the plant spread from Mesoamerica to other parts of the Americas, ultimately causing it to be integrated into the cuisine of many other Latin American nations.
The chayote fruit is mostly used cooked. When cooked, chayote is usually handled like summer squash; it is generally lightly cooked to retain the crispy consistency. Though rare and often regarded as especially unpalatable and tough in texture, raw chayote may be added to salads or salsas, most often marinated with lemon or lime juice.
Although most people are familiar only with the fruit as being edible, the root, stem, seeds and leaves are edible as well. The tubers of the plant are eaten like potatoes and other root vegetables, while the shoots and leaves are often consumed in salads and stir fries, especially in Asia.
The fruit does not need to be peeled to be cooked or fried in slices. It has a very mild flavor. It is commonly served with seasonings (e.g. salt, butter and pepper in Australia) or in a dish with other vegetables and/or flavorings. It can also be boiled, stuffed, mashed, baked, fried, or pickled in escabeche sauce.
Fresh green fruit are firm and without brown spots or signs of sprouting; smaller fruit are usually more tender. Chayote can be sliced lengthwise and eaten using salad dressing dip. The seed is edible and tasty to some when served cold when dipped in dressing.
Chayote is an important part of traditional diets across Mesoamerica, and can be found in a variety of dishes.
MY COMMENTS:
I've grown chayote in my vegetable garden for 6 years since 2013 with varying success.
- The plants require a large trellis in full sunlight but need also shelter from the heavy wind storms. Those storms break the young stems over and over again and the plants have difficulty getting started.
- Chayote also does not thrive in the desert summer heat, yet it requires a growing season of at least 5 months to bear fruit. The flowers usually don't appear until September here and need 4-6 weeks to fully develop the fruit.
That means we need to have a first freeze that is delayed until mid-November to have fruit. First freeze sometimes occurs as early as mid-October here. Since the chayote plant is not frost-tolerant at all, there is no harvest in the years with an early freezes.
- It's always a race with first freeze to see if the fruits will develop in time or not. I've had 2 what I consider 'successful' years with 10- 20 fruits, one with only 3 fruits and the other years, the plants did not survive through the summer.
- The root is sensitive to rot, and much of the rain here comes in December after the 1st freeze. Only once have I had a chayote sprout again in spring, and that one was planted in a raised bed.
Despite all the problems with growing chayote in the NM desert, it's still a fun thing to try.
Pic1: garden-fresh chayotes
Pic2: sprouting
Pic5: blooming — 2014-09-11
Pic2: chayote shoots