How fun is it to grow your own cucumbers? I grow our cucumbers in a large pot and the vines are rambling all over the place in a few weeks. We do not spray or use chemicals on our vines and fortunately we have not had any pests this year!
The Green Finger Persian Cucumber or the Straight Eight are easy varieties for your first garden. Both are easy to grow, develop in 60-65 days, and plants are fun to watch flowers grow into long vines. Place crushed egg shells around your cucumber vines to enrich the soil, as a mini form of composting. Grow your own cucumbers in pots or garden plots. Cucumbers will tolerate some heat, and like to be grown in mostly sunny areas.
Plant them in a pot or on the south side of a porch and use a trellis and mulch, and have fun growing your own cucumbers! Whip up a quick cucumber salad fresh from the garden (or the store to try this recipe sooner!) and enjoy a nice, refreshing salad with a 5 pm glass of wine. Invite your friends over to a social distanced patio party!
What Are The Health Benefits Of Cucumbers?
Have you ever wondered what benefits fresh cucumbers give you? These unique fruits not only have very crisp and refreshing taste, they contain Vitamin A, B, C and antioxidants and are also excellent sources of:
- Vitamin K
- Calcium
- Phosphorus
- Magnesium
This particular fruit is low in fat, sodium, calories, and high in water content. Water makes up 137/142 grams of the cucumber or 96%. Cucumbers are an easy food to eat to help stay hydrated - benefiting the skin, heart, liver and kidneys.
How To Make Summer Cucumber Salad
For this recipe, the cucumbers do not have to be sweated (water reduced with salt) because they are going into a brine in this salad. If you are making your salad a few days before your event, you can sweat your cucumbers by slicing and salting them, drawing off some of the water to keep the fruit crisp. But much of the goodness of the cucumber is the water content and destroying that by sweating is counterproductive.
Choose your cucumbers and onion and combine in the water-vinegar-sugar mixture and spices and let it marinate. The amounts will vary to taste and preferences.
WHAT KIND OF CUCUMBER SHOULD I USE?
All kinds of slicing cucumbers are easy to use in this salad. Most cucs you purchase in the store are slicing cucumbers. Look for English cucumbers which are smaller, usually wrapped, seedless and have very thin skins; Green finger munchers - a smaller, thin skin cucumber, and other fun varieties are the Straight eight, Diva, Sweet success, Ashley, and regular Muncher variety. All these types are great to use in your fresh salad.
TO PEEL OR NOT TO PEEL CUCUMBERS?
Today, most cucumbers in stores and farm markets are seedless and thin skinned, so peeling is not necessary. The peel is removed for several reasons: too much fiber to digest for some people, and/or bitter taste. Removing the peel is a personal choice, I usually peel parts of our cucumbers but leave some on for great color and to give firmness to the cut up pieces.
WHAT KIND OF ONION SHOULD I USE?
Any kind of onion can be used in your salad, in fact, it’s a good way to use up small amounts of red, white, or yellow onions, or even use several kinds of onion together. About 1 cup is plenty to accompany 3-4 medium sized cucumbers. If you do not have any onions, use 2 tsp. dried minced onion.
Try One Of These Delicious Dishes To Accompany Your Salad And Make It A Complete Meal!
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Walnut Lentil Tacos
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Gluten-Free Vegan Cauliflower Pizza
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Baked Buffalo Organic Cauliflower Bites
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Super Tasty Panko Tofu Nuggets With Hidden Greens
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Carrot-Spinach Socca Recipe
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Traditional Japanese Hiyamugi Cold Noodle Dish
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When all the cucumbers are eaten, the vinegar acid content will act as a preservative for up to three-five days. Then, use the liquid in your compost pile, if you have one. If not, start one with your cucumber peelings! Let us know any variations or additions you make with your cucumber salad in the comments below, and if you have a recipe of your own you can post it on our ➡️Share A Recipe⬅️ page for the Assuaged community!
