Cucumbers
recipes: A big part of the fun of growing cucumbers is in making new discoveries. This year we discovered Boothby's Blond, a Maine native that has been grown by the Boothby family of Livermore for five generations. Some years back the variety came to the attention of Will Bonsall, a farmer and seed saver from Industry. Will liked it so much that he shared it with Pinetree Seeds and Fedco, among other seed companies and seedsaving organizations.
Boothby's Blond is a small cuke, best picked at four inches or less. The plump pale yellow fruits are creamy inside and very mild tasting, crisp and sweet. They are good picklers and great sliced with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Ordinarily they don't become bitter, though in this year's dry summer most field grown cukes have developed some bitterness. Boothby's are not very heat tolerant. Their big spreading vines produce a lot of fruit and right now they are doing much better than our northern picklers.
Not all cucumbers will do well in all places. We tried a short Middle Eastern variety this year (Beit Alpha) which did not grow well, though it could be a problem of not enough heat. The few fruits we got are flavorful and we may try again next year. Johnny's recommends them as the best salad cukes.
Northern picklers are the standard pickling cuke for New England. They produce lots of small fruits, and we usually pick them at "cornichon" size, a little over an inch long, and make mustard pickles. Cornichon Vert, the genuine French variety, is available from Fedco. They must be picked small and are too strong tasting for fresh eating, but are very prolific.
We also planted lemon cukes, which are a round yellow heirloom variety that we have grown for many years. These are very crisp, juicy and mild and will produce for a long time.
An excellent European type long slicing variety is Holland, which is a recent offering from Fedco. These are best trellised so that they will grow straight. They were developed for greenhouse growing and will do well in a cool greenhouse. Another good one is Suyo Long, a dark green ridgy Chinese cucumber.
Jazzer and General Lee are two popular slicing "market" cukes. Jazzer is very early at 48 days and the fruits are flavorful but the seeds are fairly expensive.
We usually start some cukes indoors in May for transplanting in June. Cucumbers don't like to be transplanted so you should do this with care and disturb the roots as little as possible. We also direct seed some for picking later in the season.
Usually we don't bother growing cukes on black plastic mulch, since they are not a very important crop for us. But this year due to the cold, dryness, and an amazing invasion of cucumber beetles, none of the plants we treated this way did well. The small, black and yellow striped insects came early and were relentless, wiping out many of our transplanted and direct seeded squash and cucumbers. With the exception of a few hearty squash and gourds, only those cucurbits that we planted on black plastic and protected with floating row cover are healthy now.
Partly this must be due to a season which has favored bugs over plants. Squash bugs, big, fast, and flat, are also doing a lot of damage to our plants this year. Most other growers we know and a lot of customers are experiencing the same kinds of problems. Too many bugs can also point to deficiencies in the soil, especially lime.
Cuke beetles and squash bugs lay their eggs on the vines and you can expect a second generation later in the summer, though they are usually not as destructive to mature plants.
Floating row covers keep out insects and create an ideal growing climate for your plants. They are an effective non-chemical way of protecting cucumbers and squash. Pesticides don't work well on cuke beetles and you have to reapply them constantly.
After they start to flower, you should remove the cloth to allow fertilization by bees and other insects, though some cuke hybrids are self fertile. At this point cucumber beetles actually turn useful, since they are good at spreading pollen around.
This Greek cucumber and yogurt "sauce" is great for dipping vegetables. We like to eat it in a pita pocket with marinated grilled meat (souvlakia) as a perfect summer meal. 1 cup plain yogurt
- « cup sour cream
- 1 large slicing cuke, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon fresh dill, chopped fine
Combine all ingredients, stir to mix well, and serve.
Refrigerator pickles are easy to make, since you don't have to can them. They will keep well for many months.
- « gallon vinegar
- « cup salt
- « cup sugar
- « cup dry mustard.
Combine the dry ingredients and add the vinegar. Store in a gallon jar in the fridge, adding cucumbers as they ripen, either whole small ones or large sliced cukes.