Gherkins (or small cucumbers) are easily grown in the garden, and can be pickled with a variety of flavours.

Ideally the cucumbers should be no more than 100mm in length, as they can start to develop bitter seeds if too large.

There seems to be some confusion as to when a gherkin becomes a gherkin. Is it a cucumber until it is pickled, or can you actually grow a gherkin?

Well, we've been growing them anyway and have been looking forward to preserving them all through the summer. They've been nice and easy to look after, although next time we may plant a few more plants so as to provide enough small cucumbers in one picking to fill more than one jar. The tendency this year has been to leave them to get a little on the large side before picking.