Market Profile: Maxixe

Maxixe, pictured left, looks like nothing you’d want to wrap your lips around.  But the egg shaped vegetable with spiky skin turns out to be all bark and no bite.  Crunchy and refreshing, it's exactly the snack I reach for while sweating it out in an 80 degree heat spell.  Related to the cucumber and thought to have originated in Africa, Maxixe [ma-SHE-shee] is today most widely grown in Brazil and the West Indies, used in soups and salads.  Contained in a taught skin, the interior is lightly sweet and absolutely jammed with seeds.  The handful that I bought at the Davis Square Farmers’ Market went, diced, into a summer quinoa herb salad with sautéed squash and sweet corn. 

As one discovery often points to another, the growers behind my locally grown Maxixe turned out to be part of an incredible training operation.  Located in Lancaster, MA, the Flats Mentor Farm teaches small start-up farmers from a range of ethnic backgrounds how to raise vegetables using sustainable methods.  They concentrate their 20 acres on Asian produce, though each project in the Northeast Network of Immigrant Farming Programs (NNIFP) has a different angle.  The Flats Mentor Farm sells at 16 Boston area farmers’ markets and co-ops, but I did not see a single sign where I was shopping.  Just look for stands selling other rarities like Amaranth, Taro Leaves, Yau Choy, Lemon Grass, and Yard Long Beans and Fuzzy Melon.  -sy