This is an important family from the point of view of food, as it includes the entire universe of squash, melons, zucchini, pumpkins and, as the name suggests, cucumbers. My childhood diet was full of this stuff, from hot summer watermelons to zucchini bread that my Mom made from the overabundance of zucchini growing in the vegetable garden.
An unusual twist on this familiar category of food emerged in my California years. It was in the chapparal of the Pinnacles that I first encountered the spiky, pendulous green fruits of wild cucumber (Marah fabaceus), also known as Marah or manroot. Another striking thing about them were their long tendrils that would attach and coil around just about anything, thus suspending the spiky fruits at various heights. Pretty soon I was noticing wild cucumbers growing in back yards in King City and brushy thickets all over the Central Coast. Apparently they were used as food and medicine by various Native Americans.
Separately and simultaneously, I encountered fruits that resembled wild cucumber without the spikes. A Mexican colleague explained to me that they were chayote (Sechium edule), a popular staple in Mexico, which explained why I found them in gardens and supermarkets throughout the Salinas Valley. An added surprise was learning about mirlitons, the Creole-Caribbean form of the exact same food, appearing in places like Haiti and Louisiana. The ultimate fulfillment of this journey was to eat the thing. Above, stuffed mirlitons in a preliminary stage of preparation.
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