our fresh cucumbers are amazing. we had toast, fresh garlic mayonnaise, and sliced cucumber sandwiches for dinner last night. it might not seem like a meal, but it is. when i ate my first bite i said "this is the best cucumber i have ever had." now it is the best cucumber memory i have.
____________
as a kid of eleven or twelve, the year before we moved to the country we grew a huge garden on the newly purchased land. the whole family would bale into my dads (previously my grandfathers) old ford truck. i loved that truck it had a style that is still unparalleled. my dad would have prepared several trash cans of water. with salt shakers in hand, off we would go. it was seventeen miles to the new school district and garden. the flies that lived there during the summer were rampant. the first few fly bites of the year swelled and ached. the garden was lush and plentiful. tomatoes, cucumbers and greenbeans were our main crops. now to put those saltshakers to use. i'd pick cucumbers scrape the green skin off with my teeth, salt them down and devour them. scraping the skin was a necessary evil to get to the goods. oh what a delight it was to bite into those juicy cucumbers. that is my first memory of picking fresh cucumbers from the vine and eating them on the spot.____________
the main difference between those and our cucumbers is the skin is not bitter. there is no need to remove it. it truly amazed me upon my first bite. they are a japanese style long cucumber that has no equal. this heirloom variety was chosen buy my lovely wife and flourishes here in the ozarks. tabitha has put so much thought into the varieties and type of plants we have grown it is really making all the difference.
well not all the difference all of her diligent gardening is what truly makes the difference.
we have a party to go to today--barbecue, pig roast, potluck. the host is an extremely talented bluegrass musician. allegedly there will be plethora of talented artists there.
photos to come...
awww... the ladybugs all left? I read this:
ReplyDeleteBut there are a few things that you can do to get your Lady Bugs to stay. First, always release Lady Bugs in the evening, they will not fly at night and are not as active when it's cooler. Another trick is to mix water & regular soda pop (50/50) and spray it on the Lady Bugs just prior to release. The sugar in the soda will cause the Lady Bugs wings to stick together for a few days so they can not fly away. In this time the females should start laying their eggs in your garden, Lady Bugs are very territorial, Lady Bugs that hatch in your garden will call it home.
Maybe you could try that? maybe not soda, but sugar water? honey water?
worth trying. -donna
that tip was from http://marchbiological.com
ReplyDeletewhich looks like a great source for other pest control purchases...
donna
My first memories of the taste of cucumbers was when I spent my summers at my grandparents' farm in Kentucky. I recall not liking them too much (the cucumbers, that is), but to this day, whenever I eat a cucumber slice, I am taken back to Kentucky and my idyllic boyhood days there.
ReplyDeleteThis was a good post. Thanx.