Cucumbers

Here from July through September, cucumbers make a refreshing and hydrating treat in the warmth of summer. We grow a classic green cucumber and a lemon cucumber variety, which is round and yellow but tastes nothing like a lemon.

Cooking Tips

Cucumbers are perhaps best enjoyed raw in a simple recipe that lets their mellow flavor shine through. Snack on them alone with some dip, slice them on a green salad with lettuce, make cucumber sandwiches, or make a cucumber salad with a light cream or yogurt sauce. Put some cucumber slices in a pitcher of water for a refreshing drink. While green cucumbers are normally sliced into rounds, lemon cucumbers are great sliced into wedges as you would an apple. Try lightly sautéing your cucumbers for something different, or make a delicious cucumber soup to serve warm or chilled. With both styles of cucumber in your share there is no need to peel the skin, but the lemon cucumbers have a particularly thin and tasty outer layer, making them great to eat whole as a snack.

Storage Tips

Cucumbers keep best in the crisper drawer of the refrigerator, where they should fair well for a week or so. If you are looking for a way to extend the life of your cucumbers, try out a quick pickle recipe. It is surprisingly easy and makes for some delicious homemade pickles.

Nutrition

Although they are primarily made up of water, cucumbers do have some vitamins A and C, and contain lots of vitamin E, making them great to put on your skin. Their skin is an excellent source of silica, potassium, and magnesium, with some amount of fiber.

History

Cucumbers were first grown in India, but quickly spread east through Asia and west through the Mediterranean region. They were mentioned in the Bible, and grown in greenhouses by the Romans. Columbus introduced them to Native Americans, and subsequent explorers found them being cultivated with expertise by Indians across much of North America. They mysteriously fell out of favor for a time in England, where they were called "cowcumbers" and believed to be fit only for consumption by cows.

Field Notes

Unlike squash and melons, also in the Cucurbit family, we grow our cucumbers on trellises. This makes for easier harvest, a good thing since in the months when these plants are productive we have to go through the beds three times a week looking for any ripe fruits. Cucumbers are ready to pick when they take on a darker, dusty green color and are bulging enough to smooth their bumpy skin, or, in the case of the lemon cucumbers, begin to yellow and grow round. The green or slicing cucumber variety that we grow is named Marketmore, a popular variety for its disease resistance and productivity. Lemon cucumbers may seem new and novel, but they have actually been around for a long time; the variety we grow dates back to well before the 1890s, when it was brought to the U.S. from Australia.