The Garden Project: Can we grow anything other than cucumber and zucchini (and sometimes green beans)?
This is what happens when you haven’t been to your garden in over a week:
You find a HUGE zucchini. Oops. Not sure what we are going to do with that. We didn’t like the taste of the first few zucchini we picked.
We also found a ton of cucumber. We picked 10 of them, but there were probably at least 5 more we could have taken. Hopefully I will be able to share these with some people in my office. I like cucumber, but I don’t think I could eat more than 3 or 4 by myself in a week.
Since the cucumbers are growing on vines above the ground, it’s really fun to look for them. It’s like looking for a hidden treasure! I am sure we will end up with a humongous one at some point too.
And… the green beans. Wow. We had so many to pick.
Sarcasm.
I am not even sure why I picked these. It’s about 1/4th of a serving for one person. I am so sad our green bean plants didn’t take off.
We’re still waiting to find out if a lot of the other produce will grow. The sweet potatoes are spreading out all over the place, and we have some green tomatoes. I pulled up a “carrot” today to take a peek and it was about the size of a pen cap. Maybe smaller. The rest of the produce is questionable.
At least we have had success with our cucumbers. I love the test of them, and think it’s awesome that we can just go to the garden and pick a cucumber (or 10) when we need one.
Any ideas on what I could do with all of these cucumbers?
I love putting them in salads. I have been eating a huge salad every day though. I like veggies and it, but it’s getting a bit old.
Themocracy
My mom made lots of cucumber salad and cucumber pinwheels when I was growing up. I miss both of these things, but they are definitely not the healthiest way to use the veggie, and I’m not sure how healthifying them would work out actually… Could you do a cold cucumber soup?
What is a cucumber pinwheel?
A cold soup actually sounds really good. My grandma makes a dill/potato soup in the summer that I like to eat cold. I wonder if I could incorporate cucumber.
refrigerator pickles? I have no idea how she made them, but my mom did while I was growing up and I loved them!
You can try putting some peanut butter on cucumber slices for a good protein snack. Then let me know how it is because the idea just came to me and I haven’t decided if it is totally gross or not – LOL!
Ha ha! 😛
I need to read through these comments later because we keep getting 4-6 cucumbers in our CSA box every week and while I am not the biggest fan of them, I’ll eat them. Chris, however, hates them and won’t eat them unless they are 1/100 of a recipe. 😉
I’m intrigued by your question and want to know everyone’s advice! I’ll be back later for suggestions.
One thing my Mom does is cut them into spears and eat with dip. They seem to go quicker when cut into spears opposed to rounds.
I think that is true about spears vs rounds. They’re less intimidating that way 😉
my mom loves making a tomato, cucumber feta salad with olive oil & balsamic 🙂 its pretty darn tasty!
I want that zucchini in my belly. its my favorite veggies as of now. haha
Hmm, cucumber sandwiches with hummus?
Your green beans are so curly, teehee!
Yum! Lots of goodies! There are a couple of cucumber salads that are pretty good… One is vinegar-based & has cucumbers & onions, & the other is sour cream based and has dill & cucumbers. I have the recipes at home & will send them to you if you want them! 🙂
Yes, please send!
Stuff that zucchini badboy! Lentils and such would be awesome! 😀 Mmmm cucumber! It goes well in pasta salads or even a cucumber and onion salad. Maybe some tzatziki sauce? Although to keep it V, you would have to use a soy or coconut yogurt. Still yummy though!
You could pickle them, Alton brown has a good recipe that my husband used.
You could also make a taziki sauce with Greek yogurt. s squirt of lemon and a chopped red onion .
My grandfather always grew cucumbers, so all summer we’d have cucumber sandwiches for lunches. Bread, butter, cucumber, salt, pepper. All chilled, super refreshing. Maybe not totally healthy, but I lived.
As for the zucchini, they are one of the few things that grows well here in the desert. My former engineering coworkers would all cut them in half, scoop out some of the inside, fill with a meatball type fulling (I’m sure you could vegan substitute), and then either roast or grill. One big filled zuch can feed you guys for a week!
Not a fan of cucumbers. But I love zucchini. cut it lengthwise and use as “noodles” in a lasagna. You won’t taste it. If you end up doing it, email me, because there’s a bit of a process there that makes it better!
Oh, please tell me! That sounds like a great way to get rid of our zucchini.
Can the cucumbers and make pickles. That is what my grandpa used to do cause he would have so many. I am sure online there are a ton of recipes and it would be fairly easy.
Mmmm…I wish I lived close to you, I would eat all those cucumbers right up! I wish I had suggestions, but I usually just eat them in my salads. Would you eat them on their own, with hummus maybe?
Are you sure that those cucumbers aren’t actually HUGE green beans? It could happen.
Strange that you had such a good crop of one but not of another.
SPA night! actually my “urban agriculture” group had a really interesting post on cucumbers http://rootriot.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/what-a-little-gem-the-cucumber-is/ maybe you’ll find something you’d like to try there
DeAnne, thank you for the link! First of all, I think it’s so cool that your garden has a website. We keep saying “I wonder if anyone here [at our garden] is blogging.” And secondly, I love the tips! Especially 4 and 12. (I wonder if 13 works!)