By Mary Lowther
Cucumbers produce just when we need something refreshing to combat this intense heat. By the time I’ve trotted out to the garden to fetch dinner I feel like I’ve already braved enough heat so I’m quite happy to make dinner without turning on the stove.
Cucumbers can help fill this niche, and in this heat they’ve grown more than I had anticipated. These long seedless English Emperor Cucumbers produce very well in the greenhouse and outside. I started four indoors mid-April, and a month later planted three of them in the greenhouse and one outside under the sweet pepper tunnel. I’m letting the one in the tunnel sprawl on the ground and the ones in the greenhouse grow up a string attached to the rafters, like the tomatoes.
These vines do not produce side shoots, but if they had I would have trained two of them up two strings and nipped off the rest every two days. The cucumbers hang down straight from the vine. I’m letting the tops keep growing and when they fall over the top wire, I’ll let them drape down and see how long they produce. Two years ago I was still harvesting the odd cucumber in mid-October.
One can also set up an A frame outside for the cucumber to climb, allowing the fruit to hang down. My outside plants do not produce as many fruits so if I didn’t have a greenhouse I would grow more plants.
These cucumbers are seedless, but if they were a seeded variety, I would nip off all the male flowers as they appeared so that the female fruit-producing flowers wouldn’t become fertilized and set seeds. Fertilized cucumbers not only become full of seeds but they taste bitter. Male flowers do not have a bulge (embryo) at the base of the flower.
As with most produce grown at home we can pick cucumbers when they are most tender before they fully mature. Commercial growers can’t afford to do this so it’s just one more reason to have a vegetable garden. When we get tired of eating cucumbers I’ll pickle the rest; David likes sweet sliced pickles and I like dill so I grow dill that’s ready to harvest at the same time and make both kinds.
I find it interesting how vegetables and herbs pair up according to what is in season, like the dill and cucumbers. Only when we grow our own vegetables can we see what’s ready at what time in the garden and we realize that our ancestors have already created dishes using these combinations.
Here’s a nice quick snack that was a hit with the bridge crowd last Tuesday: cut the cucumbers into finger-sized pieces and make a dip with ½ cup of yogurt, ½ cup of mayo, 1 tsp. curry paste and ½ tsp. salt.
Please contact mary_lowther@yahoo.ca with questions and suggestions since I need all the help I can get.
