One Cucumber?!

zinnia11 · May 4, 2009

I am a beginner gardener this spring and I am enjoying the heck out of this forum and all of the great advice.
I have been growing all kinds of veggies this spring and one of them is a boston pickling cucumber. I just love seeing them develop and ripen! First of all, I am not sure of when the best time is to pick them. I have picked three so far because they looked ripe. But my question here today is this: If I only have one or two or even three cucumbers that are ready to be picked, how do I go about preserving them? Can I add more cukes to the pickle batch as they become ripe and ready? What can I do with only a couple of pickling cukes?

jenn_sc · May 5, 2009

Hi Zinnia

It sounds like you just have a couple of cucumber plants. I've found that most cuke vines will produce about 1 fruit per day on average, maybe two. You need about 6 plants, minimum, if you wanted enough cucumbers all at once to make batches of pickles. I think they taste best small.

One good idea I found was to reuse the vinegar in your favorite commercial pickle jar. Just slice up a fresh cuke, pack the slices in the jar, and let them chill out in the fridge for a couple of days. They turn out great! We did that with my husband's favorite bread and butter pickles from the farmer's market last summer-it really made the jar last

Good luck!

Jennifer

Earl · May 23, 2009

Only two? I think you should eat them for lunch. :-) I would. Or put them in some Cuke Corn salad. Slice some sweet onion, the cukes, some tomatoes [canned diced] and a can of shoe peg corn. Add some hellman's mayo, vinegar, salt and pepper and lots of dill weed. a dash of hot pepper flakes? Yum.

May 4, 2009	#1
zinnia11 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Port Orange, Florida Posts: 20	One Cucumber?! I am a beginner gardener this spring and I am enjoying the heck out of this forum and all of the great advice. I have been growing all kinds of veggies this spring and one of them is a boston pickling cucumber. I just love seeing them develop and ripen! First of all, I am not sure of when the best time is to pick them. I have picked three so far because they looked ripe. But my question here today is this: If I only have one or two or even three cucumbers that are ready to be picked, how do I go about preserving them? Can I add more cukes to the pickle batch as they become ripe and ready? What can I do with only a couple of pickling cukes?

May 23, 2009	#3
Earl Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: SW Ohio Posts: 1,278	Only two? I think you should eat them for lunch. :-) I would. Or put them in some Cuke Corn salad. Slice some sweet onion, the cukes, some tomatoes [canned diced] and a can of shoe peg corn. Add some hellman's mayo, vinegar, salt and pepper and lots of dill weed. a dash of hot pepper flakes? Yum. __________________ "Seriously think about what you're about to do/say before you do it and the outcome will always be better." Earl

May 5, 2009	#2
jenn_sc SPLATT™ Coordinator Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Florence, SC Posts: 502	Hi Zinnia It sounds like you just have a couple of cucumber plants. I've found that most cuke vines will produce about 1 fruit per day on average, maybe two. You need about 6 plants, minimum, if you wanted enough cucumbers all at once to make batches of pickles. I think they taste best small. One good idea I found was to reuse the vinegar in your favorite commercial pickle jar. Just slice up a fresh cuke, pack the slices in the jar, and let them chill out in the fridge for a couple of days. They turn out great! We did that with my husband's favorite bread and butter pickles from the farmer's market last summer-it really made the jar last Good luck! Jennifer