The Great Cucumber Challenge

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If you have a large pot that will work as a waterbath canner, it’s easy to make traditionally canned pickles. All pickle recipes involve vinegar brine, which is so salty and acidic that it preserves the pickles from spoilage. (Always follow a pickle recipe to the letter.) If you need to save fruits picked during the week for weekend pickling, avoid storing them in the refrigerator. The University of Georgia found the cucumber’s ideal storage temperature range to be 50 to 55 degrees. Several frozen water bottles placed in the bottom of a cooler and covered with a towel makes a fine quickie cuke cooler.

Score up to 4 points — 1 for each recipe you try.

STEP 9: GET CREATIVE WITH YOUR CULLS

Some people use the flesh of lumpy, kinky or overripe cukes to make chopped relishes, or you can use a sharp knife to carve decorative designs into the rinds, and then cut them in half, hollow them out, and use them to serve dips or salsas. Chilled cucumber slices are a classic natural cosmetic used to soothe puffy eyes, and though I could find no research to validate the fruits’ effects, dermatologists often recommend placing cool slices over closed eyes, and settling in for a 15-minute rest. Dogs will often fetch a misshapen cucumber until it starts to fall apart, or you can feed your culls to chickens or add them to your compost. Do get them out of your garden, because plants holding mature fruits will stop producing new ones, and rotting cucumbers can become a source for disease.

Score 2 points for picking plants clean weekly, and 1 point for using all the rejects you can. Compost the rest.

STEP 10: SAVE SEEDS

Just one fruit from an open-pollinated cucumber that hasn’t crossed with other varieties will produce at least 50 perfect seeds, or maybe even 100. (As long as only one open-pollinated variety is in bloom and accessible to pollinators at any given time, you’ll know it hasn’t crossed with others.) As an exception to Step 9, leave a few seed-bearing fruits on the plants for three to four weeks, or until they change to yellow or orange and start to soften. From there, you need only cut the cuke open, scoop the seeds and surrounding tissue into an uncovered bowl and gently mix in an equal amount of water. Stir twice a day (holding your nose if necessary) for two days, then add water and pour off everything but the seeds that sink to the bottom of the bowl. Rinse them several times and dry the seeds on a cookie sheet kept in a warm, shaded place. Under good storage conditions, cucumber seeds remain viable for five years or more.

This is an important activity, because it brings you a small step closer to selecting a variety that suits your site, your soil and your personal tastes.

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