What's green, flies through the air and comes to the aid of cucumbers and gherkins all over the world?

(source: Elephants, Grapes and Pickles)

When I was a child, I loved sweet gherkins, and I always thought they were just baby cukes, but I have see gherkin/cornichon seeds in seed catalogs in the past. There are also heirloom varieties known as gherkins that are round and look like mini watermelons.

It seems that yes, young cukes are used for cornichons. This heirloom variety apparently was:

https://www.superseeds.com/collections/cucumbers/products/parisian-pickle-cucumber-50-days

I've only grown picklers and slicers. Cukes are very fussy to grow here.

I like the ones the size of my pinky... ;)

If I understand correctly, a cornichon and a cucumber is the same plant, but there are varieties that are better at being either a cuke of a cornichon.

Gherkin is a kind of cucumber, a really small one. Just like there are cukes that grow to pickle size, or slicers, or English are rather long and thin.

I've grown French and Mexican gherkins in the past. Mexican gherkins aren't real cucumbers but they are used like that. Cute, but novelty for me. Other cukes are as good or better for fridge pickling and more multipurpouse than the wee ones. I'm not fond of home canned pickled cucumbers and can't seem to replicate Milwaukee pickles so I don't try growing the little cukes anymore.

This year I planted "Petite Pickles" variety of cornichon cucumber from Renee's Gardens. https://www.reneesgarden.com/products/french-cornichon?_pos=1&_sid=fa1b92bd5&_ss=r

I think I should have planted more than I did in order to get a good volume, but I also see that it is going to be tedious as hell to pick these little things at 1.5 to 2 inches. I tried picking one at 1 inch and it was so fragile that it broke, leaving one half still attached to the stem and vine. I think I will need to use a sharp knife to harvest.