cornichons
 

anyone ever grown them?

my best customer among the restaurants i sell to would like me to give it a shot this year.

if you have grown them- did you grow a specific type of cuke for them or just harvest a regular pickling cuke at very small size?

They are the same family as cukes but are a different cultivar, Cornichon is French for Gherkin and they are picked very small . Look up gherkins and you may find more info. I may even have a packet.. I will get back to you.



Just looked,I have two lots of Gherkins..both received from the UK in seed swaps. One is simply called Gherkin about 30 seeds maybe and says plant by 2011 and the other is Piccolo Di Paragi and is from Seeds of Italy there is also about 30 seeds, it says plant by 2012. I wouldn't worry about the dates personally.

I can pop both or one in the post of you wish

XX Jeannine

[url]http://www.kcb-samen.ch/shop/?cPath=30[/url]

In the US, the variety used most often for cornichons is Paris Pickling aka Parisian Pickling aka Improved Borbonne. I'm getting some seeds of it from Ohio Heirlooms and plan to try growing it this year. SSE has some good photos here:

[URL="http://www.seedsavers.org/Details.aspx?itemNo=1356%28OG%29"]http://www.seedsavers.org/Details.aspx?itemNo=1356%28OG%29[/URL]

awesome- thanks to all of you!

pm sent to Jeannine.

that KCB-Samen site is amazing- 700 types of cucurbits...