An important garden lesson: you cannot stop a cucumber plant from going crazy– Actually, you cannot stop any vining plant from clinging and climbing wherever it sees fit. But let’s talk cucumbers.

I planted an heirloom variety known as lemon cucumber. Lemon because the resulting fruit is fairly lemon shaped and ripen from light green to a bright lemon yellow. When I checked on the plant two Fridays ago there were a number of flowers waiting to burst with fruit. I left for a week to visit D in upstate New York terrified I would miss out on a massive cucumber harvest. (Seriously, I had three different dreams about lost or unattended garden bounty.)

While upstate, I purchased a beautiful 3-gallon ceramic crock pot from a lovely antique dealer– really a gift for all those cucumbers ready to spring to life. When D and I returned Sunday we headed to the garden for our first massive harvest: corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant and ever more basil.

We’re overflowing with cucumbers now and decided to take action. Garden cucumbers head to the crock for brining and CSA cucumbers get crock treatment or turned into the great little snack you see pictured above. I’ll provide a picture of the brined cucumbers once the pickles are (hopefully) tasty and ready for the camera.

Until then, satisfy your cucumber (and tomato) bounty with this fresh and easy snack. I used a hearty cranberry-walnut bread as the base. Any other good bread will do, or go without bread, using the cucumber as a base. Top with any fresh herb and voila, a tasty garden treat.

Cucumber Bites
Serving Size= 5 piece. Prep time= 5 minutes.
5 small slices, or 2 larger slices cut small of cranberry-walnut bread
1 cucumber, sliced 1/2-inch thick
1 vine ripe tomato, sliced 1/2-inch thick
salt/ pepper to taste
5 slices, 1/4-inch thick, feta
fresh thyme for garnish (parsley, chives, parsley or cilantro will work too)
lemon spritz (optional)

Method: Toast bread until golden. Layer bread with cucumber and tomato. Season with salt and pepper then top with feta and a sprinkle of herbs. Add a spritz of lemon over top for some added zip.

Recipes include:
Blueberry-Jalepeno Spritzer
Berry-Herb Lemonade
Fruit Ice
Rose Spritzer

Get Wet With These Summertime Drinks. July 24, 2008.

All those blushed up tomatoes looking for attention have nothing on the eggplant. Her velvety leaves hide her delicate fruit from the passerby– so shy! Like a proper lady, she never goes out without a hat for the occasion.

So far, the garden has offered up three solid eggplants. One Black Eggplant, one India Paint and one Rosa Bianca. The only problem is that it is not enough. I crave more of the earthy flesh! If all my tomatoes turned into eggplant I would be a happy camper.

Below is a garden growing montage. One that displays (most) of the vegetables growing fairly. You’ll still notice a favoritism on the eggplant– as well as the watermelons. But corn is represented nicely here, as are the beans.

Although it appears everything is happily growing along, initial pictures are deceiving. Take a closer look at the zucchini (middle). Notice the brown around the roots? About two weeks ago I saw small white maggots on the stem near the root. I pointed them out to D, noting we needed to take action. D’s response: Those are good, they’re natural. I read the book about soil, it’s okay, just let them be.

I had my doubts on that one. When are maggots ever a good thing when food is around? Stupidly, I let them be.

I returned a few days later to find the zucchini bush in a sad state, teetering on the brink of death. This picture represents what I thought to be the last of the run. After some research I came to believe those little buggers were root maggots, sure to devour and kill my crop, attacking at the root. I contemplated mail ordering beneficial nematodes (uh, what?), but decided a first step was a concoction of onion-garlic-hot pepper. I liberally spritzed and sneezed it on everything in site.

My next return was a happy discovery. Whether the maggots also sneezed their way into oblivion, fried in the 95 degree heat after I moved the leaves aside exposing them to elements, or, forbid it, hatched and flew away, they were gone. The zucchini has survived, albeit, a slight amputee.

Next is the corn. I thought everything was going along smoothly, though D is worried about tasseling– most veggies have their male/female parts right next to each other, making pollination easy. But corn has tassels at the top and silks on the husk. Each silk is linked to a corn kernel and must be pollinated from a tassel above to produce an edible kernel of corn. In large fields, tasseling happens by wind (or bugs if they survive the pesticides) or any other method I am not aware Big Ag does to tassel. In small plots, tasseling can be done by hand. Hopefully, our 18 corn is a large enough plot to tassel themselves, I have noticed many a bee hanging out on the tassels.

While D is worried about tasseling, I noticed the corn pictured in the middle right the other week. Who got a hold of that one! And there best not have been any kernels on that exposed cob!

So that is the growing update. I have eaten more than my share of zucchini for a lifetime, a few eggplants, and a severely under-ripe melon I picked in sheer excitement (I stir fried it up with the eggplant). And a pressure canner has arrived, ready to be put to work. Grow baby grow!