Cool as a Summer Cucumber

Maxine July 12, 2021

Have you ever heard the term “cool as a cucumber”? This term is said to have derived from the cucumber’s potential ability to cool the temperature of the blood. How utterly cool is that? Cucumbers are a member of the gourd family and are technically a fruit in the botanical sense as they contain seeds inside.… Read More »

Have you ever heard the term “cool as a cucumber”? This term is said to have derived from the cucumber’s potential ability to cool the temperature of the blood. How utterly cool is that?

Cucumbers are a member of the gourd family and are technically a fruit in the botanical sense as they contain seeds inside. Cucumbers, more popularly known, tend to go by their culinary distinction of a vegetable and are generally green skinned and long and cylindrical in shape. The two most popular varieties are slicing cucumbers and pickling cucumbers. Slicing cucumbers tend to be the larger of the two varieties and are best eaten raw. Pickling cucumbers are slightly smaller in size and are best used for pickles, however, can also be eaten raw or other dishes.

Cucumbers are very versatile and have been taking the culinary world by storm for their use in many new and trending recipes. Not only are cucumbers great in salads, they are also great in cold soups, for quick pickles, in smoothies, work great as a low calorie base for appetizers, and are the main ingredient in Tzatziki sauce and summer dressings. You can also zoodle them to add raw into salads or other dishes and even freeze cucumbers in many forms. Some other suggestions for incorporating cucumbers into your diet are using cucumber instead of bread for sandwich roll-ups, hollowing out thickly sliced cucumbers to use as “cups” for appetizers instead of crackers and slicing cucumbers to infuse in your water. Great ways to increase your daily veggie intake with not much effort. They also pair well with so many other foods.

Cucumber are made up of 95% water so they are a great choice for summer hydration and to feel refreshed. They contain small amounts of sugar, B vitamins and electrolytes that are said to replenish essential nutrients and keep everything in balance.

Cucumbers are a warm season crop that do not tolerate frost and are being harvested on our farm now that it is Summer. We start them from seed in our greenhouses in early March and then either move them to our high tunnels for protection from the elements, or harden them off, and plant directly into the ground around mid April to May, once temperatures are warm enough to plant outdoors here in NJ. We grow several crops of cucumbers on our farm using raised beds with trickle irrigation, which we feel results in an earlier crop, and helps us provide the delicious cucumber for longer periods of time, making our guests very happy.

Bees are necessary for adequate pollination of our cucumber crop as the male plants have pollen producing flowers and the female plants have fruit producing flowers. If you visit our farm during cucumber flowering season, you may see bees visiting the flowers multiple times which helps with the overall production & yield of the crop. We have our own bee hives on our property to help with pollination as well as to produce honey and honey products from our farm. Speaking of honey and cucumbers, that is a delicacy that must be tried!