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18.8.11

Cucumber Varieties


Before this summer I never gave cucumbers much attention. Yes they are good to throw in a salad or whatever but ... it is a cucumber....big whoop, but the garden we pick from has 4 different kinds of cucumber and I have fallen in love with this odd little vegetable. They are growing like mad and we can keep up with harvesting them all. This is what is grown:

Pickle Burpless Armenian


Lemon

All of these cucumbers are great to just eat off the vine or throw into a salad but each does have a distinctive taste and texture and some are better for some ways of cooking that others.

Pickling Cucumbers are short, flavorful and versatile when cooking. Great for eating raw or pickling. Throw these in a mason jar with vinegar, dill and salt, process, and a few months later you have a pickle. I enjoy fresh pickles which take 3 mins instead of 3 months. Slice cucumber and drizzle some balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper on there. Yum.

Burpless Cucumbers can typically be found in your grocery store. They are the ones all wrapped up in plastic. These have a thin skin and small seeds and are less flavorful than the other varieties of cucumbers. Great for salads, no need to peel or seed.

Armenian Cucumbers are not only delicious but also really quite pretty when cut up into thick slices because of it's deeply ridged skin. If you like crunch, these are the cucumbers to get. The outer veggie is very thick and very crunchy. No need to seed or peel, great eaten raw and they look stunning on a veggie platter.

Lemon Cucumbers are considered the gourmet cucumber. The skin is thin and yellow and the taste is sweet and flavorful. They are really pretty just kept in a large bowl on the counter. They do have little prickles that scrub off easily. Great eaten raw and do pickle well.

Your local farmers market should be supplying beauties like these in abundance if you'd like to obtain some to have in your home.

2 comments:

  1. NO. I DO NOT LIKE UNPEELED CUKES.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love lemon cucumbers the most. They wonderful and good with a little garlic salt on them. Good post:)

    ReplyDelete

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