Gherkins are the result of a long succession of selections from cucumber. Originally, cucumber was bitter and thorny.
The gherkins were grown during the reign of Louis XIV at Versailles by the chief gardener. He used a technique called La Quintinie; it is a practice initiated by gardener Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie in the 17th century. Fragile fruits were acclimatized in a removable greenhouse made of wood and glass when the season was bad.
There is no certainty but it is thought that this fruit was created from cucumber using selections around 2500 years ago to feed the builders of the Chinese Wall.
Some archaeologists suggest that its appearance is older and goes back to Mesopotamia 3000 years ago, after the first dynasties imported cucumber from India.
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