Finally, a developing cucumber!

Supposedly cucumbers are easy to grow. I haven't found it to be so, having tried perhaps halfheartedly, the last couple of seasons with no success. The plants shrivel, look sickly, and flower feebly, before succumbing, undoubtedly to some sort of cucumber wilt. Maybe it was the offbeat varieties I was trying.

But, I finally thought that I'd try in earnest, with the (3rd!) packet of Armenian cucumber seeds I'd apparently purchased. Hmm, perhaps that was a message that I kept ordering Armenian cucumbers, which are long slender, supposedly non-bitter cucumbers.

I actually never have much liked cucumbers, at least the American variety, which in their supermarket incarnation are seedy and have bitter, tough skins. So my interest in Armenian cucumbers is a bit odd, when I think about it. I do have fond memories of delicious cucumber salads flavored with dill in German 'mensas' (or cafeterias) back in my school days.

So I amended the soil heavily with compost and lime, and proceeded to put in seeds in a place along the fence that has successfully grown beans and Malabar spinach (pretty but not so tasty) in the past.

So having some cucumbers developing, finally, seems like an accomplishment. Maybe they'll even be tasty!

Comments

  1. I'm sorry to report that some of them of them are a bit bitter, but great fun to harvest! Our weather has been so darn hot, it's probably inevitable that some of the bitter compounds are being produced.... Oh well, the vines are pretty.

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  2. OK, I need to be fair. The later harvested cucumbers (developed under more moderate conditions) have been quite nice with thin skins. So we're happily eating them in salads. They're still not my favorite vegetable, however!

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