You won’t find chokos in supermarkets but there was a time when everyone had a vine on the back fence
Words Jennifer Stackhouse
When I lived in a warmer climate, our choko vine grew easily to cover the side of the large shed and produced so much fruit that I ran out of jars for choko chutney.
It got so the family was suspicious of any baked vegetable dish that came out of the oven. Even the chooks lost their enthusiasm for bowls of steaming choko on a cold morning.
Now, in a much cooler climate, our new choko vine grows prolifically along the side fence but in two years it has only produced one small choko.
Native to Mexico and Central America, the choko is definitely a plant for a warm, frost-free climate.
In the right place, the sheer mass of fruit each vine produces is possibly why chokos aren’t widely eaten. Also, much like rabbits, they’re associated with times of hardship such as the Great Depression and World War II when food was scarce.
It’s time for the choko to shake off its unfortunate reputation and strike out as a superfood that’s super easy to grow and super abundant.
Chokos are easy to prepare and nutritious as well — they contain vitamins C and K, fibre and minerals including potassium, manganese and copper — but are low in calories.
Eating chokos
The large green fruit, shaped like a bumpy, light-green avocado or pear, is produced from late summer to winter.
While waiting for fruit to form, the tendrils and shoots are edible and can be harvested to add to stews. The roots, too, are edible.
Chokos are rarely seen in fruit shops so to enjoy your own fresh chokos, grow a vine, starting with a single fruit. One vine will produce more fruit than you can eat.
Pick the fruit while it’s small and tender then use it as a vegetable. Its flesh readily soaks up flavour so it’s usually cooked with onion, tomato and cheese.
Inside the fruit is a single large seed encased in pale green flesh. The skin of a mature choko is tough and may be ridged. As well, it can be slightly hairy but it is easily peeled with a vegetable peeler.
The one drawback to peeling a choko before it is baked, steamed or diced as the basis of chutney or pickles, is that it feels slightly slimy as its skin is removed.
If the fruit is mature, remove the core and seed before cooking.
Planting tips
The easiest way to get started with a choko is to plant a mature fruit at the base of a fence or climbing frame in spring or early summer.
There’s no need to extract the seed — just save a whole fruit from the previous season. The fruit produces a new stem and a root from its broad, puckered end (produced by the seed inside the fruit).
Place the fruit on its side so that the shoot can grow up while the root grows downwards.
As the weather warms it grows quickly in every direction. Keep growing with regular water and occasional feeding. The vine will carry on growing until hit by frost or cold.
Plants regrow from the established root system in spring.
Choko label
Common names: Choko, chayote
Botanical name: Sechium edule
Family: Cucurbitaceae (gourd family)
Aspect & soil: Full sun to light shade; well-drained soil
Best climate: Temperate, subtropical, tropical
Habit: Climber
Propagation: Seed
Difficulty: Easy