So this past spring I thought it was an awesome idea to plant 15 cucumber plants. The kids eat loads so I thought why the hell not.
The kids are now sick of cucumbers.
Typical.
Anyway, dealing with a kg of cucumbers a day gets a bit overwhelming, you can get a bit sick of them, and being a salad veggie they don't last all that long in the crisper.
So I went on a mission to find some ways to extend the harvest and not let any go to waste (that's a lie the chickens got a couple of kgs and the compost got a fair amount too).
Juicing
When asking the instagrams and facebooks the general consensus was to juice them. Apparently it's delicious, I didn't try juice per se because my juicer is way up the back of the storage shelf collecting dust so instead I blended and sieved. This was really refreshing with some mint and orange juice. But you could go crazy with the combinations.
Moisturiser
Using a very small amount of juice (around a tablespoon) I blended it with some aloe vera gel from about 5 leaves. Stored in the fridge this actually was a great little moisturiser! Very refreshing, although it doesn't last long before it goes off so use it quickly. I suspect this would be a great one to have after a little too much sun.
Fermenting
When I started to collect lots of big cucumbers, and saw the next batch coming, I decided to start picking the tiny ones. I then used these to make a brine dill pickle. Kinda like a sauerkraut. It's super easy to do.
What you need:
- 400gms of tiny cucumbers (fresh is best, if bigger than 1cm in diameter slice them length ways)
- 1 Tablespoon of mustard seeds
- 5 Cloves of garlic
- 2 teaspoons of peppercorns
- 4 Sprigs of fresh dill
- 1 Tablespoon of Salt
- 2 cups of filtered water
- A cabbage leave
- A sterilised jar (Around 1 litre)
- A weight
How you do it:
- Wash your cukes and soak them in an ice bath (this makes them plump up and helps them to retain their texture).
- Add to a sterilised jar the mustard seeds, garlic, peppercorns, dill and cucumbers.
- Mix your salt and filtered water together until the salt has dissolved. Pour it into the jar over the cucumbers ensuring the brine is completely covering the veggies.
- Place the cabbage leave on the top and use it like a lid and pushdown the cucumbers to ensure they are fully submerged. Add the weight to stop it moving to the top.
- Place lid on the jar loosely (you might want to put it on a plate incase it overflows) and store it at room temperature for 3 days.
- Remove the weight and the cabbage, pop the lid on tightly. And pop in the fridge. They'll be ready to eat in 2 weeks. Eat within 6 months.
Pickles
We normally do our 'bread and butter' pickles with zucchini, but they work just as well with cucumbers and you can barely tell the difference (the skin is just a little tougher).
What you need:
- 10 Lebanese cucumbers
- 2 brown onions
- 5 cups of white sugar
- 5 cups of white vinegar
- 1 Tablespoon of mustard seeds
- 2 Teaspoons of turmeric
- 1/2 Cup of salt
How to do it:
- Slice the cucumbers and brown onions thinly (a food processor with a slicing blade is your friend).
- Pop in a bowl and sprinkle with the salt. Let sit in the fridge overnight (I actually forgot about mine and did them 2 days later and they turned out awesome).
- Drain off the brine created from the overnight soak.
- And place in a saucepan with the vinegar, sugar, turmeric and mustard seeds.
- Bring them to the point of boil and bottle them up and seal while hot.
We're now down to 3 plants and that's keeping us well supplied. I'll plant out some seeds for the next succession but next year I won't plant so many!
What is your go to way to use your glut of cucumbers?
