Two years ago I purchased a chayote which had started to sprout, and planted it in the garden. This year I haven't been taking good care of that area and the vine has taken off, growing up into the cypress trees over the garden. It looks very healthy and this year has at least two fruit -- but the fruit, while they have the shape and color of a market chayote, are covered with short, sharp spines.

This is the first time we've gotten fruit from the chayote so we don't know what to expect, and I haven't seen any assistance on the internet.

Can you tell -- will the spines fall off leaving a smooth skin? Is this the type of fruit we're going to get? Should we cut these when they're ripe and peel the skin off? - - and how can we tell when they're ripe?