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I have a book that says if you want them to be firm you should lay them in a dish and sprinkle them with salt and leave overnight before rinsing thoroughly then put them in jars with spiced vinegar.

I've always been interested in gherkins as to how they grow - they are like baby cucumbers aren't they, so if you don't pick them do they grow into a big cucumber and is it edible?

I make up in small batches, slice the gherkins and cover in salt overnight for crunchy gherkins (if you like them soft you use a brine solution instead). Wash well the next day and dry. Pack into jars and cover with cold spiced vinegar. Leave a couple of months and enjoy. I don't add any more but as I said, make in small batches. I have 4 plants spralling up a fence. They grow on vines and are more spralling than courgettes, as said above, they're part of the cucumber family and I find that about 3 small fruits make a good jar full so no problems. One tip - much nicer to make your own pickling vinegar as you can adjust the spice to suit. I make mine by boiling up white wine vinegar (for gherkins, use red wine for beets) some garlic gloves, dried chillies, corriander seeds, pepper seeds, dill leaves and a few other bits and pieces. Boil for about 10 mins, let go cold, strain and use. You can make more and store for future picklings too.

Nice piccy! But have you actually tried eating them raw when they are bigger, and are they like cucumber? I'm just wondering whether one can make dill pickles from baby cucumbers or let cornichons/gherkins grow and use them as cucumbers? It might be interesting to save on the enormous cucumber glut by picking them small for example. Hmmmmm - one to think about!

i grow them too. I usually let them get big - like the bigger one in your picture. then i slice them and drop them in brine overnight. then i heat up some malt vinegar and dill and a bit of sugar(very vague) and then pickle them in that. sort of making my own dill pickles for burgers.

Have you tried eating them 'raw' Red? I'm trying to find out if they taste like cucumber!

Millymollymandy wrote:Have you tried eating them 'raw' Red? I'm trying to find out if they taste like cucumber!

They are ok if you peel the skins which are bitter

I peel my cucumbers too because the skin is spiny and tough. Anyway do gherkins produce more than a cucumber plant, or do you need to have loads of plants? I've got 3 cucumbers and that's way too much, but if it was gherkin size I wanted then I'd need loads more and that would take up a lot of space. Probably just easier to buy them from Lidl!