When Life Gives You Cucumbers ...

We planted way too many cucumbers this year. Who knew that 8 cucumber plants would be too many? We have harvested over 50 cukes so far, and they are still coming. I think they are starting to throttle back a little though. Thank goodness! I've been pushing them off onto neighbors, family and friends, and we still have a crisper drawer full!

It was exciting to see our first cucumber forming on the vine in late June. Little did we know that they were plotting to take over the world!



We decided to pickle and can some cucumbers, so we found a couple of good looking recipes on-line and set off. It was our first time canning. I hope we did it right! We haven't tried any of the pickled cukes yet, because they are supposed to set up for 1 month before eating. I guess this is to let the spices soak in.

This recipe is pretty basic; cucumbers, kosher salt, water, vinegar, sugar, celery seed, mustard seed, ginger, tumeric.



This recipe was a little more exciting; cucumbers, cider vinegar, curry powder, brown sugar, spices, etc ...



We have also been eating them fresh with some salt or ranch dressing for dipping, and we have been making one of my favorite salads with cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, red onion, balsamic vinergar, oil, salt and pepper. Yummy!

I think next year we will plant just 3 cucumber vines, and I'm going to try to get them to climb a trellis so they don't crowd out the squash.