Check Out This Cucumber
Broward Farm Bureau Supplied the Seeds
I picked up this pack of ‘Marketmore 76 Cucumber’ seeds from the Broward Farm Bureau booth at the South Florida Fair. They were promoting this variety of cucumbers because they are resistant to scab, mosiac, downey mildew and powdery mildew. I don’t really know what that means but it sounds good.
These will have white spines and dark green skins. I have never seen a cucumber with spines before.
—Farmer Matt
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Spines scared me when I first started growing cucumbers! I thought I had demon possessed vegetables, but before I sought out a priest someone told me that’s normal. If you look closely at grocery store cucumbers, you’ll see they have little white dots or raised bumps where the spines used to be. They come off with a little rubbing once the fruit is mature.
Random fun fact for you- you’ll notice most varieties of cucumbers are called “Burpless” in some way. Cucumbers, like many other veggies, cause gas and burping. So they bred the varieties that were the least stinky, and called them Burpless. I guess Poot-less was no good… 🙂
My cucumbers look similar to yours, only they are longer- must be a similar (or the same) variety. This is the first time we've grown cucumbers, so I was a little surprised by the gnarly little things. I guess it's good to grow stuff you don't normally find in the grocery store, though. It makes home "farming" much more enjoyable, I think, and introduces us to perfectly good foods that we've been taught to think are inferior based on looks or textures. Next year I'm growing all heirloom varieties of foods if I can, just to taste things that grocery stores don't carry. I'm glad you are enjoying your gardening experience. We love ours!
Hi! As I wandered around the internet I “found” your blog. The tales of raised bed gardening takes me back to the Liz Christy Garden in lower NYC before I relocated. That is still a community garden, part of the Green Guerillas.org group. Let Jan Norris say what she will, just go for it!