Lady’s Slipper

Lady’s Slipper is a type of Achocha / Caigua which is native to the Andes region of South America.

It is a vigorous climbing plant which is very easy to grow.

The fruit of the Lady’s Slipper is 10-15 cm long and shaped similar to an oriental slipper with pointy toes. The fruit is hollow like a pepper with a crunchy and crisp flesh that has mild sweet flavours of cucumber, green-beans and perhaps hints of leaves.

While not strong in flavour it looks good and takes on other flavours very well. Traditionally it is stuffed and baked in a dish called caigua rellena. However it is also used in modern salads, soups and in stir fries. Some suggests pickling them when young in a similar manner as gherkins.

Soak seeds overnight (8-24h) to get a better germination rate.

Some additional information
Achocha / Caiga is described on page 206 in the book Lost Crops of the Incas which is available for free.

The plant is quite vigorous and productive why we think 3-5 plants probably is good to start with.

Some say it likes to grow so much it can become a weed. Hence, care should perhaps be taken to place it where it doesn’t interfere with other crops. However, having such a vigorous food crop isn’t a bad thing in our opinion. Just plan well before planting it.