Japanese wrinkled cucumbers: breed?

[vivian]

Years and years ago (the early 70s) my parents used to vacation at a place outside West Townsend, Vermont, called (I think) Wyndham Hill Farm.

The owners grew all their own vegetables on-site and a big part of WHF's attractiveness were the gourmet meals they prepared with them.

Many afternoon lunches featured sandwiches made with what we were told were Japanese cucumbers--these were dark purple on the outside, purplish-green on the inside, had very wrinkled skins (which were eaten along with the rest of the cuke), and had a very crisp, almost nutlike taste.

Does anybody have any idea what these might have been? I've looked at literally hundreds of seed catalogs over the years and nothing called a "japanese cucumber" per se has even looked remotely similar to what I remember.

Before I die, I would love to eat another one of those delicious sandwiches!

viv

[tinyplanter]

hi vivian

IMHO, it's more likely to a 'pickled eggplant'. i would show you a pic of the same sorta stuff, so you could check it out whether my guess might be on the right track or not?

[vivian]

Well, to tell you the truth, given my complete and utter failure to find anything in the cucumber family that remotely resembles what I remember, I've often wondered if it could have been something like you mention.

Unfortunately, the pictures you link to don't resemble my beloved cukes of yesteryear and I can definitely assure you the raw vegetable itself was served (I helped pick them several times), not anything pickled.

Thanks for the suggestion, however.

viv

[Valkyrie]

You might just try sending an email to this company and see if you can get an answer.

[vivian]

The Suhyo Cross looks very, very interesting and I have placed an order. Now if we could just get some decent gardening weather. (Alas, I'm Zone 4.)

viv

[William Wagner]

I guess you know about Johnny's selected seeds. Maine Folks USA zone 4 or colder?

They carry Suyo Long Cucumbers . Johnnyseeds.com

Bill

[Pat Kiewicz]

Johnny's also carries several varieties of edible gourds. In particular, note the luffa ('Rama') and the snake gourd ('Polo') which are very ridged/wrinkled.

=

[tinyplanter]

This is just my second thought. In japan, we have a recipe called 'shibazuke'. i just can't dare giving up the idea of this when i had re-read your thread. It's a sort of pickles (again a pickles!!!) of cucumbers (not a eggplant!!!) using some salt, sweet vinegar, extracted juice from red japanese basil (i think this is the central item for this sort of pickles that make pickles purple.) and red ginger etc.. You claimed that they were raw cucumbers, but we have another type of pickles that were made overnight. In such cases, they taste almost the same with the raw materials, very crunchy. i 'm not sure about my guess though.

-Ono