Cucumber
Cucumis sativus
M
y first crop of cucumbers was anything My plan for next year is to grow the English
but cool. Since cukes are actually well style—I promise you that this has nothing to
known as heat lovers, I planted a full row that do with bias! I shall grow them on a trellis and
allowed them to creep out over our concrete see if they’ll make it in the space vacated by the
and fine-pebble driveway. I expected them to gherkins.
spread out, but they stayed close to the fence, The good thing about the trellis is that it
where, despite their being crowded, they blos provides good air circulation, which in my
somed vigorously. judgment clearly trumps a hot driveway!
I made an apparently classic mistake in leav
ing them too long to harvest. So one day they
were nicely green and relatively small at 5–6
inches; the next day, a number of them turned The Numbers
a pale green, and then—bingo!—they went
yellow! And bitter! And bloated! Cucumbers of any variety are pretty cool if you’re
following a weight-loss program. They are also
In the midst of this failure, a straggly little among the lowest sodium foods available and
plant that I’d been given by a friend, who de promote the healing of tendon tissue with their high
scribed it as a pickling gherkin (Diamant), silica content.
went into overdrive against the sheltered sunny For 100 g raw (3.5 oz ; ½ cup): 13 calories, 0 g fat,
wall of our new greenhouse, delivering a boun 3 g carbohydrate, 1 g protein, 1 g dietary fiber, 0 mg
tiful supply of tiny 1½-inch footballs. sodium
136 • GROWING AT THE SPEED OF LIFE
