ojai news at The Ojai Post :: blog, newspaper, events in Ojai, California

Millennium, sounds like Green Ojai should be the featured Localization Station for the next HopeDance! What's the name again of your new nursery cooperative? And what are you growing besides Chayote vegetable pears?

MT, what does a Chayote taste like? Is it like many other types of squash or is it sweat?

Chayote, Mango Squash, Vegetable Pear, Choko, Chaco, Choco, Madeira Marrow, Sechium edule 'Spiny-fruited'.

The chayote (Sechium edule), also known as choko, is an edible plant, which belongs to the gourd family Cucurbitaceae along with melons, cucumbers and squash.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chayote

Chayote, Alcayote, Cayote, Cho cho, Chocho, Choko, Christophane, Especie de Zapallito, Guisayote, Guisquil, Huisquil, Mirliton, Pipinella, Chuchu, Xuxu, Choke, Sou-sou, Vegetable Pear.

* Chayote (Spain)
* Güisquil (Mexico, Central America)
* Pataste (Honduras)
* Chayota (Venezuela)
* Cidrayota (Colombia)
* Gayota (Peru)
* Tayota (República Dominicana)
* Papa del aire, Cayota (Argentina)
* Guisayote, Tayote, Chocho y Acayote

* In Guatemala and Honduras, the dark green variety is labeled güisquil, the yellowish-white variety perulero and the more common light-green variety pataste.

Basically think of it as a hard, pear-shaped, cucumber. Crunchier. Wondrous. Also, it is a perennial, and the vine grows ten to twenty times larger than a cucumber, so that much more productive.

Not sweet. Consider it a vegetable, also a bit of a 'cleansing' vegetable, just like the Cucumber in that regard too. A friend named Vishnu from India gave me my first ones about a decade ago in New Zealand. Immigrant families take them wherever they go in the world to make sure they have a sure food source in their new lands. I get the impression that Chayote/Chokos have been traveling in the bottoms of canoes for tens of thousands of years ... definitely with Stone Age, perhistoric, peoples ... probably one of the earliest pre-agricultural carry-along food companions of our 'family'.

You just drop one on the ground, and with no water or anything it sprouts vines and leaves, and puts down roots. One vine will cover the side of a small house, if there is a lattice for it to grow on. That one will produce a hundred fruit after only a few months. [That is if it finds good water ...]

We had a Chayote growing on an overhead lattice at our house in Ventura, along with about 25 fruit trees, garden, etc. We lost it all, Chayote included, through a investor, real estate agent, court scam but that's another story; other than to make the point that the Chayote system is usually killed by the money system. There's politics behind everything it seems. The Chayote foliage is beautiful; the fruit a bit bland but a good cook can do wonders with it. The golden picture of the godus above is magnificent. She and the love of nature is our salvation in this Godus forsaken world. Money is the modern god which is not only bland but indigestable. Green Valley, Golden Light, indeed. "not money to be spent, rather love to be invested..." Indeed. Wake up, Ojai!

thanks Tom, re: the "Family Tree" nursery collective!

at this point we have a dozen Kiwi-fruit with which we are about to set up a long trellis to grow on. about twenty Guavas of the Red Strawberry, Yellow Strawberry, and Pink and Thai varieties. and planted some White Guavas and Feijoas last year, and Loquats and Persimmons and Bamboo, in Meiners Oaks.

I have several more Loquats going from 5-gallon pots to 15-gallon pots now, and others going from ones to fives -- plus about a dozen Mulberries of the larger sizes, and several hundred baby mulberries just starting out. also several 1-gallon to 5-gallon size Persimmons, another Feijoa, four Kei Apples about to go into 15-gallon pots, and a Peruvian Ground Cherry in same, and a WolfBerry (Goji Berry) going into same.

two hundred Jelly Palm fruit seeds are in the ground, and I expect most of those to come up. and we also have some nectarines, and a Plantain, and a Mango. haven't yet had any luck with the Macademia nuts sprouting ... but several White Sapotes are not up to 5-gallon or 15-gallon size, and have a couple of young Black Sapotes I am nursing along.

hopefully we will get Stephen Spalding of Exotica Nursery to make another run to Ojai this year ... and bring in more volume and more varieties. anyone who wants some trees from that source, added to our order, let me know.

oh, and by the way, there is now another Volunteer Tree group in the Valley, just launched last Saturday -- announced at the Green Summit -- by the name of Ojai Trees. am sure we will be hearing from them soon.