The Vegetable Chronicles: Cucumbers

The last few days have been rather busy, in a good way.

Attila harvested a large number of Lemon Cucumbers. I have been enjoying them peeled and sliced with my breakfasts for a week or more now. The plants are now coming into their own, lots of cucumbers. Since our pickling cucumbers did not do well again this year, I decided to try making dill pickles with the lemon cucumbers.

And so the canning season begins, a week or so late this year, probably due to the very cool spring weather.

Yesterday we canned a batch of Dill Pickles with the lemon cucumbers. The peel is unacceptable for eating, and the seeds are very soft, so we peeled them and removed the seeds, then sliced them for the jars.

One jar of the lemon cucumber dill pickles did not seal, so we gave them a taste. We simultaneously decided that lemon cucumbers would not be used for making dill pickles ever again. They tasted okay, but were very soft, no crunch at all. However, they will be perfect for dill pickle soup.

I saved and refrigerated the soft cucumber seeds. Today I strained off some of the liquid to add to a peach smoothie, good but not great. The rest will probably be frozen for winter soups. I want to try making Tzatziki as well with the seeds.

We are hoping the local grocery store offers bushels and half bushels of pickling cucumbers, as they have other years. If we can find reasonably priced local pickling cucumbers we will make a lot of dill pickles this summer. So far there are only three litre baskets that cost far too much to consider them for pickling.

Ontario peaches were on sale, so we bought eight litres just for eating. They were picked a bit green, so it will take some time on the counter for them to fully ripen. Ontario new potatoes were also on sale, so we bought a bag of those as well.

This morning we started early on our kitchen projects, which included:
– washing, labelling, and storing eight jars of Lemon Cucumber Dill Pickles,
– milling flour (two one gallon jars)
– making a batch of gummies,
– picking green beans (½ bushel),
– washing, dicing, blanching, and packaging 16 cups of green beans for the freezer,
– making bread dough for pizza,
– making pizza for dinner,
– grinding pork and making 46 4-oz pork sausage patties for the freezer,
– dishes, more dishes, and yet more dishes…

Yesterday Attila took the vehicle in for warranty service. I stayed home. So I went for my morning walk alone. On my little journey I bumped into a fellow walker. We see her almost every morning at some point, and always exchange a smile and a friendly hello. I stopped to chat with her, she inquired about our flourishing garden. It was the perfect opportunity.

I offered zucchini!

And she said yes!

So as we had arranged I left four huge zucchinis on the front porch, and at some point on her walking route she picked them up and carried them home.

Later, in the evening, Attila came in with a little bag containing a thank you card, and a freshly baked zucchini loaf, she had left them on our doorstep. Attila said the loaf was delicious!

When we bumped into her today she described the zucchini lasagne she also made with the zucchinis. I might try it, she said it was delicious.

Attila gave away a few earlier in the week to a fellow he knows from work, who we bumped into in the grocery store.

Now we only have two large coolers full of zucchinis, and more coming in every day… which leaves us casting our eyes about, ever vigilant to identify another likely recipient.

Worldly

Weather

23°C
Date: 9:00 PM EDT Friday 31 July 2026
Condition: Partly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.3 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 22.6°C
Dew point: 17.6°C
Humidity: 73%
Wind: SSW 14

Quote

“If you knew what I know about the power of giving, you would not let a single meal pass without sharing it in some way.”
Buddha
563 BC – 483 BC