I recently read a blog in which the author described the cucumbers of her youth, “as thick as baseball bats, their tough skins dappled with small, prickly spikes. Running my fingers along their peel was as pleasurable as stroking barbed wire.”
She, of course was singing the praises of today’s so-called seedless varieties, particularly the popular plastic-wrapped English cucumbers, so packaged to add an additional layer of protection to the thin, delicate skins. They are delicious! But, why do we need to replace a natural layer of protection with an unnatural one, once again?
The cukes in my garden are a “burpless” variety, a long-fruited oriental cucumber that produces impressive yields. The prickly spikes are easily scrubbed off, and the skin is not so tough as to make it hard to digest. Depending on my recipe, though, I may partially peel them (I like the striped effect, which always looks pretty), or peel them completely — which is often much easier to do than removing shrink-wrapped plastic! If I am watchful, and the cucumbers are picked when young, they are delicious in salads. If they grow a little bigger, I can make pickles. And if I blink one too many times, I harvest the “bats” and make pickle relish! Continue reading “Dill Pickle Relish”