Cucumber School

So, back from the Pacific Northwest. Almost two weeks have elapsed since our departure. It was a great trip (and more on that shortly, I gaurentee), but I am happy to be back on the farm. And what better time to be here than at the front end of harvest season!

I thought I would break the usual blog routine of family and kid tales to bring you some harvest news. Well, you could say that we picked a lot of stuff today. Or you could say that we toted a substantial amount of produce into our house. But the best way to describe our bounty would be the Old English term: butt-load or so much that you cannot carry it all with just your hands.

Ok, now to school.

We have 6 varieties of cucumbers growing in our gardens this year. Here are four we harvested today:

Burpee Pickling - A nice, productive cuke with a mild taste. Not my favorite, but they are crisp and not at all bitter.

Early Russian - A productive cuke with a mild taste. Great for pickles or fresh eating!

Snow - This one won our taste test. Great all-purpose cucumber melon... and sweet!

Suyo - A japanese cucumber with a thin, burpless (not bitter) skin. Tastes nice fresh, but it would make great pickles since the skin has a cool ribbed look. These two are about a foot long!

Not pictured are the mystery cucumbers from Mason's garden (they came in a package that simply named them "Cucumbers") and the Armenian cukes. I will torture you with pictures of them later.

So, there you have it: more than you ever wanted to know about the cucumbers in our garden this year. If you are still reading, I am beginning to question how you spend your quality time, or perhaps I have found a partner in my obsession. Whatever the reason, thanks for tuning in.

Oh, we also picked a couple tomatoes.