"Heaven is a homegrown cucumber" - Alys Fowler

Opinions differ on the cucumber. Perhaps you side with Samuel Johnson: 

"Cucumber should be well sliced, dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out"

or prefer Alys Fowler's take on this fruit:

"Heaven is a homegrown cucumber"

I'm definitely with Alys on this one but perhaps Johnson's dislike purports to early versions of this fruit.

I usually grow four cucumber plants in the polytunnel using the Quadgrow system. Cucumbers are often the second crop of the season after asparagus. My preferred variety is Passandra F1, an all-female type yielding large quantities of tasty mini-cucumbers (6" or 15 cm long).

Seeds were sown on 6th April in Rootrainers filled with a coir-based multi-purpose compost and placed in a heated propagator (23 ℃).  Four days later, the shoots appeared and the young plants were extracted from the propagator and grown on at ambient temperatures (18 ℃). The cucumber plants were transplanted into the Quadgrow Planters on May 15th and the first four cucumbers picked on June 12th - approximately 10 weeks after sowing the seed.

Photo 1: Two cucumber plants in Quadgrow Planters (12th June 2023)

Photo 2: Two more cucumber plants in Quadgrow Planters (12th June 2023)

Photo 3: First four cukes of the season

For some recipes using cucumbers, see my earlier post.