Cucumis sativus.
An heirloom variety from the antipodes, commercially introduced in Australia by the Arthur Yates house in the 1930s, whose precise origins probably go back to older New Zealand selections. The name describes the plant perfectly: round to oval fruits 5 to 8 cm, exactly the size and shape of a small apple, with a pale cream skin almost pearly white when picked at the right stage — hence the "crystal," which evokes both the translucent colour of the skin and the transparency of the fresh flesh in the mouth.
Different from its cousin Lemon Cucumber, the Crystal Apple offers an even milder and more delicate flavour, halfway between cucumber and watermelon, almost sweet, without a trace of bitterness — a cucumber you eat like a fruit, bitten into greedily over the sink, or simply sliced and dusted with a little salt and pepper. Its thin skin never needs peeling, and the inner seeds stay tender and negligible when you harvest the fruits young.
Excellent in flash pickles in rice vinegar, slipped whole into an English Pimm's cocktail, sliced into discs to decorate cold appetizers, or simply served in sticks to children, who often prefer it to standard cucumber because of its shape and mildness. A productive climbing plant that can yield several dozen fruits per season if you harvest regularly.
Grower's tip: Crystal Apple's visual maturity is misleading. Harvested at the cream-white stage, it's at its peak of flavour — crunchy and sweet; left on the plant, it yellows, its skin thickens and the seeds harden. So watch closely from mid-July on and pick assiduously — that also stimulates new fruit production. Like all cucumbers, it hates being moved — indoor start 3 to 4 weeks maximum before transplanting in biodegradable pots, or direct-sow in early June once the soil is at 18 °C. Install a sturdy trellis to keep the fruits airy, clean and easy to spot.
- Open-pollinated. Monoecious, bee-pollinated; crosses with other nearby cucumbers — isolate for seed saving.
- Height: climbing stems 1.5 to 2 m, to be trellised.
- Maturity: 60 to 75 days after transplant.
- Exposure: full sun.
- Rich, deep, well-drained soil, kept cool with good mulching. Space plants 40 to 50 cm apart on the trellis.
- Indoor start 3 to 4 weeks before last frost in biodegradable pots, or direct-sow in early June once the soil is at 18 °C minimum. Harvest assiduously at the cream-white stage for the best flavour.
