I was introduced to chayote, a wonderful squash-like vegetable, through not an entirely unlikely source: Andrew of Plant-Zone. He blogged about delicious-sounding chayote soup while I was living in Saudi Arabia. It looked amazing, and I wanted to try something new. A few weeks later, I featured chayote in a dessert recipe in a guest post on Macheesmo (my second time featuring a main ingredient he had not yet used on that blog, which is something I'm quite proud of). Strange that I didn't discover chayote until moving to the Middle East, because I grew up around so many people for whom chayote is a staple. But chayote is also popular in east Asia, so it makes sense that the university's grocery megastore would stock it on a regular basis--but it's much cheaper to buy here in DC.
I also didn't really notice the veggie in Star Trek, several series of which I used to watch on a regular basis growing up. Chayote pops up frequently in random bowls laying around, because it just looks so funky from the right angle (for example).
It wasn't until I stumbled upon a post about growing chayote in Virginia that I thought "Um, why not grow it?!"
So I bought one a few weeks ago and let it sit, waiting for the seed to germinate within the fruit. I'll let it go for a few more weeks before planting it, and I plan on training it up a fence or something. I haven't quite decided!
Growing Chayote
