I got a prize tomato the other day. Was afraid the squirrel would get it but it was kind of hidden and it did not get it and I tempted fate and let it ripen on the vine. I do find a tomato remnant now and then from the squirrel, but there are still some more forming getting close to full grown. Hopefully, I will get a few more... Cucumber plant is going insane. I have three in the fridge and there are a bunch more coming due soon. Other than salads and slices on sandwiches, I don't know what to do with them all. I like them as slices for a snack once in a while. I used to do that at work. Good with some salsa and/or hummus on them.
Send them here! My seed-sowed cukes never made it beyond baby leaves. Why?! I took good care of them. They wouldn't have germinated if the seed wasn't viable - would they??!!
I now have a few store-bot cuke plants going, but with our lousy "summer" -- frequent heavy overcast here near the beach -- who knows??
Only cukes I really like to eat are the small "pickling" ones. The big watery ones don't do much for me. Perhaps I should heed the advice to cut lengthwise and scoop out the seeds before serving?
I stopped buying the "Persian cucumbers" sold in six-packs because the last few go bad before I get around to them.
You can make a nice sweet pickled cucumber slices with little trouble, it keeps for ages and is good on sandwichwes, with antipasto etc. If you are interested I will find the recipe.
Use smallish cukes, maybe 50% larger than pickling size. Peel strips of skin leaving about 1/3 of the skin. Score lightly lengthwise with a fork. It lets in dressing with thickish slices, and looks pretty in any case. Slice very thinly... I use the food processor. Cover with dressing made in these proportions and refrigerate for a bit.
3 cukes
1 smallish medium onion sliced *very* thinly
Dressing
2/3 cup white vinegar
2/3 cup cold water
4 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon dill
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
Sounds great! For me I would leave out the water until I was sure that I needed that volume of dressing, otherwise it could be rather watery. Note that this dressing will draw water out of the cucumbers.
a really good dressing can be made from them using the greek yogurt, some garlic and a bit of mint, salt, olive oil, vinegar or lemon juice.
take 3/4 of the cucumber, garlic and yogurt and blend it well. chop the rest of the cucumber and add that to the blended sauce.
add any of the remaining items to taste or leave them out completely. if you use mint, chop finely, but it doesn't take much (a pinch is plenty for most people).
good on about anything, commonly used as gyro sauce, salad dressing, etc.
another way we like them is to mix a dressing out of plain yogurt and mayonaise and then use that over sliced cucumbers and sweet onions. a bit of green pepper is fine in that too. also a bit of vinegar and sugar are fine in this.
simple version is to slice them and some onions and add them to water, sugar and vinegar (adjust each to suit your own taste).
i've taken all of these and used them as salad toppings or mixed them together in various combinations. all of it is pretty good and keeps in the fridge for a while.
some people call the vinegar/water/sugar version refrigerator pickles. they keep long enough that we don't have trouble eating them all.
what i like about all of these is that they are good cold and don't need any cooking to make. good hot weather food.
for some strange reason we have six cucumber plants. luckily not all of them are producing or we'd never be able to eat them all. visitors often go away with extras.
Soups. There are a lot of different recipes for both cold and hot soups with cucumbers as a major ingredient. Lots of leads if you search the Web.
One I remember is Asian, made with chicken broth, chunks of peeled and seeded cucumbers, and bean thread noodles. Seasoned with garlic, ginger and a waft of sesame oil, garnished with cilantro. Can add scallops if you want to make it luxurious.
Then there are the cold, pureed soups, made with chicken broth, sour cream (you could substitute plain non-fat Greek yogurt) and often seasoned with dill or lemon.
And I cannot forget to mention Polish cucumber soup (ogorkowa).
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I can't grow cucumbers at all; they start to run and then invariably wilt and die. For a while I had a system rigged up to grow them in an enclosure where they were protected from beetles (and pollinators) but that would only delay the death long enough to get a few cucumbers before the plants died from fungus likely related to lack of air circulation. Too much work for too little reward.
I can't grow melons here, either, and I used to have beautiful melons at my old place.
Tried making pickles the easiest way but they were on the soft side and too salty. Don't rely on the internet but use directions in reliable sources like the Ball canning book.
I don't eat that many pickles and thinking about relish, would be the same, so not bothering this year.
Simple thing you can do, if you have an open jar of pickles in the refrigerator, add your cucumbers and in a couple of weeks they will be similar but you cannot take this too far.
I sometimes trade with neighbors for their excess produce but they are trying to give me cucumbers.
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