Cucumbers

TexasAggie 7/16/2015, 8:55 am

We are getting too many cucumbers. My wife does not like pickles and I have lots of pickles from previous years. How else can you save (preserve/can/freeze) cucumbers for later use?

boffer 7/16/2015, 9:28 am

The last couple years, I've been juicing and freezing my surplus cukes. I experiment by adding the juice to smoothie or juiced concoctions, homemade salad dressing, and soups and stews. A little cuke juice goes a long way, so 4-5 pints is plenty to get the two of us through winter.

greatgranny 7/16/2015, 11:19 am

boffer wrote:The last couple years, I've been juicing and freezing my surplus cukes. I experiment by adding the juice to smoothie or juiced concoctions, homemade salad dressing, and soups and stews. A little cuke juice goes a long way, so 4-5 pints is plenty to get the two of us through winter.

Thanks for this suggestion. I love smoothies. Could add it to my kefir. Yes, and the kefir cheese would taste mighty good with cucumber juice added. Oh and also think about the fact that cucumber juice is good for the skin and many other things.

http://www.stylecraze.com/articles/benefits-of-cucumber-for-skin-hair-and-health/

Windmere 7/16/2015, 12:05 pm

Recently I tried a watermelon, cucumber lemonade. Sounds strange perhaps, but it's delicious!

CapeCoddess 7/16/2015, 12:38 pm

I never get too many cucumbers. Sad

Lucky you.
CC

TexasAggie 8/6/2015, 1:49 pm

boffer wrote:The last couple years, I've been juicing and freezing my surplus cukes. I experiment by adding the juice to smoothie or juiced concoctions, homemade salad dressing, and soups and stews. A little cuke juice goes a long way, so 4-5 pints is plenty to get the two of us through winter.

We recently found a smoothie receipe: 1 cup cut-up cucumber, 1 c of almond milk, 1 tsp Splenda (or other non cal sweetner), 2 scoops of protein powder, 4 cups of strawberries, blend well - provides 4 servings. With the surplus from 1 cucumber, measured 2 c of chopped cucumber and found out that a small container (4 oz) holds the one c equivalent and we are freeezing the excess.

**trolleydriver** 8/6/2015, 2:23 pm

I've been using my SFG cucumbers in smoothies and I made a cucumber salad (sliced cucumber, sliced onion, white vinegar, water, sugar, black pepper and let it sit over night). There are many recipes for the cucumber/vinegar salad online.

http://www.food.com/recipe/cucumber-and-onion-salad-182382

Marc Iverson 8/6/2015, 6:10 pm

Trolley, I regularly do something like that, but cube instead of slice. Cukes, tomatoes, onions, maybe some fresh parsley or dried dill. Very simple but nice, either for eating as-is or using as a quick relish. I don't fridge it overnight, though, so the tomatoes don't get mushy.

Windmere, cucumber/watermelon together in a juice is one I would never have thought of, but they do have a lot in common in their juiciness and crisp, easy bite. I'd like to try that mixture sometime!

**Scorpio Rising** 8/6/2015, 7:01 pm

cucumber watermelon red onion cilantro ( and a bit of jalapeno if you like some heat) salsa is really great with chicken/pork/tofu/fish on the grill!

CapeCoddess 8/6/2015, 7:07 pm

I-want-too-many-cucumbers!
Crybaby

How many plants do I have to plant to get too many cukes?

CC

**Scorpio Rising** 8/6/2015, 7:18 pm

Me, too, CC, I didn't plant 1.......forgot how forgiving SFG is for the cukes. Will go vertical here. Cucumbers 671790

**walshevak** 8/7/2015, 2:04 pm

Windmere wrote:Recently I tried a watermelon, cucumber lemonade. Sounds strange perhaps, but it's delicious!

A local restaurant makes a basil, rosemary, lemonade. Tasty

**Scorpio Rising** 4/10/2016, 5:09 pm

CapeCoddess wrote:I never get too many cucumbers.
Lucky you.
CC

Me either....Skippy's app tells me to start my cukes today. How many? 4?

**Scorpio Rising** 4/10/2016, 6:32 pm

I just planted 4 beit alpha cukes, and replanted 4 Ruby crunch lettuce that failed to germinate! My 2 replanted Great White tomatoes are up. All on the heating pad under lights.

CapeCoddess 4/10/2016, 7:01 pm

SR, did you plant the cukes inside or out? If inside did you use peat pots? I never have luck transplanting cucumbers started inside. I start mine outside once the weather warms up. Sometimes I'm able to get them to grow early under a clam pack. But I never have enough fruits even though I plant 8 seeds at a time in 2 succession plantings. All I need is one cuke per day. Maybe that's too much to ask for... idk

CC

**Scorpio Rising** 4/10/2016, 7:56 pm

Inside....but I have time to stick them into peat pots! Didn't know they were finicky transplants. How many plants for one cuke/day?

zackshea 4/11/2016, 8:25 am

I plant 18 plants each year, at the same time direct seeded in the garden. They do great growing up a 6' trellis. They need lots of water. I get enough to eat 1 or 2 big ones a day and the rest I pickle. Straight 8's are my favorite for eating and pickling.

Cajun Cappy 4/11/2016, 10:53 am

on one 4 ft end of our box we plant 12 poinsette seeds they make nice big cucs plenty for eating sharing and pickling for us. Every 3rd year or so we plant 2 4ft trellises and go into big time pickle production. The season here is short cause teh heat gets them but thanks to our rich bed they make like crazy. I just put them in the ground on a 4ft side yesterday Very Happy

CapeCoddess 4/11/2016, 12:41 pm

zackshea wrote:I plant 18 plants each year, at the same time direct seeded in the garden. They do great growing up a 6' trellis. They need lots of water. I get enough to eat 1 or 2 big ones a day and the rest I pickle. Straight 8's are my favorite for eating and pickling.

zack, don't the Straight 8's get powdery mildew? I have that problem a lot so now I have to grow Marketmore.

CC

landarch 4/11/2016, 1:20 pm

we eat too many fresh to have "extra"...we use cukes many ways;

1. I peel, scoop out the seeds and cut into long sticks for the kids
2. cuke/onion salad (vinegar version)
3. cuke/onion salad (creamy version with sour cream and vinegar)
4. cukes in pasta salad
5. cukes in Raita - an creamy Indian side dish (finely grated cukes, salt, pepper, plain yogurt).
6. cuke/ tomato salad with dill.

I have a friend that makes a pickle relish with older, large cukes. Never really thought about preserving other than pickles. My only other thought is to experiment with different pickle types, shapes, etc.

By the way, the cukes I'll be doing this year will be Chelsea Prize, Beit Alpha, and Tasty Green (seeds from Renee's Garden).

zackshea 4/11/2016, 3:43 pm

CapeCoddess wrote:
zackshea wrote:I plant 18 plants each year, at the same time direct seeded in the garden. They do great growing up a 6' trellis. They need lots of water. I get enough to eat 1 or 2 big ones a day and the rest I pickle. Straight 8's are my favorite for eating and pickling.
zack, don't the Straight 8's get powdery mildew? I have that problem a lot so now I have to grow Marketmore.

CC

I haven't had issues with powdery mildew. Hopefully I won't this year.

**Scorpio Rising** 4/11/2016, 7:17 pm

zackshea wrote:
CapeCoddess wrote:
zackshea wrote:I plant 18 plants each year, at the same time direct seeded in the garden. They do great growing up a 6' trellis. They need lots of water. I get enough to eat 1 or 2 big ones a day and the rest I pickle. Straight 8's are my favorite for eating and pickling.
zack, don't the Straight 8's get powdery mildew? I have that problem a lot so now I have to grow Marketmore.

CC
I haven't had issues with powdery mildew. Hopefully I won't this year.

I grew Straight 8s back in my original SFG.... did better on trellis than the ground as far as mildew.

So I should pot my seeds up now to peat? No germination yet thinking

zackshea 4/12/2016, 8:02 am

I never transplanted cucumbers, I had heard they don't transplant well. They have plenty of time to grow from direct seeding. You would probably have better luck with the peat pots than anything else

CapeCoddess 4/12/2016, 10:42 am

zackshea wrote:I plant 18 plants each year, at the same time direct seeded in the garden. They do great growing up a 6' trellis. They need lots of water. I get enough to eat 1 or 2 big ones a day and the rest I pickle. Straight 8's are my favorite for eating and pickling.

To me Straight 8's are the best tasting but again, the PM takes them down in my area.
Are those 18 plants in 9 squares?

CC

zackshea 4/12/2016, 11:00 am

CapeCoddess wrote:
zackshea wrote:I plant 18 plants each year, at the same time direct seeded in the garden. They do great growing up a 6' trellis. They need lots of water. I get enough to eat 1 or 2 big ones a day and the rest I pickle. Straight 8's are my favorite for eating and pickling.

To me Straight 8's are the best tasting but again, the PM takes them down in my area.
Are those 18 plants in 9 squares?

CC

yes, I do 2 per square.

Sponsored content

Cucumbers

Cucumbers

Re: Cucumbers

Re: Cucumbers

Re: Cucumbers

Re: Cucumbers

cucumber juice

Re: Cucumbers

Re: Cucumbers

Re: Cucumbers

Re: Cucumbers

Re: Cucumbers

Re: Cucumbers

Re: Cucumbers

Re: Cucumbers

Re: Cucumbers

Re: Cucumbers

Cukes

Re: Cucumbers

Re: Cucumbers

Re: Cucumbers

Re: Cucumbers

Re: Cucumbers

Cucumbers

Re: Cucumbers

Cucumbers

Re: Cucumbers


	Hello Guest! Welcome to the official Square Foot Gardening Forum. There's lots to learn here by reading as a guest. However, if you become a member (it's free, ad free and spam-free) you'll have access to our large vermiculite databases, our seed exchange spreadsheets, Mel's Mix calculator, and many more members' pictures in the Gallery. Enjoy.