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Friday 30 December 2011 Cucumbers grow profusely in the greenhouse and the corn house. They've done well every year, even when we've had a rainy summer. The only complaint is that some varieties have slightly bitter skin. Isa has taught herself how to pickle the cucumbers, too, so we have a bunch ready to go this winter. We grow our cucumbers in 5-gallon white buckets recycled from the Galena dump. These seem to be perfect for the corn house to carry around at our leisure. We also grew some in the southern corners of the greenhouse, where they found a happy spot and were the most productive we've ever seen. Summer 2011 Sadly, I lost my variety list for cucumbers, and I have vague memories of a variety called Olympian that were mere demigods in the scheme of things. The rest of the crop suffered under the uncovered corn house, which didn't get a roof until the end of July. No pickles for us. Summer 2010 The best producer of the year was Telegraph Improved, an English variety for the greenhouse. These were long, sweet-tasting cukes which produced more than we could eat. We let some of them grow all summer so we could have huge ugly yellowish cucumbers for the Galena Ag Fair. The Orient Express variety worked well, too. As usual, the varieties with the more squat cucumbers were the ones with the bitter skin. Previous seasons We've always grown cucumbers, ever since our first year here. They've always been successful, as long as they're in some sort of greenhouse. |
One of the Telegraph Improved, which had a sweet taste. July 2010. 
An unknown cucumber variety in the corn house. July 2007. 
One of the Morden cucumbers, which grew robustly but had a slightly bitter taste in the skin. August 2009. |