Brown Uzbeki Cucumber

Brown Uzbeki Cucumber

This is really one of the nicest cucumbers we grew this year. It is a slicing cucumber (not a pickling one), and it has a really nice crisp flesh and a nice flavor.

Like all heirloom cucumbers it has large seeds. This plant is also not very productive, so if you are only growing one cucumber plant this may not be the best choice. It is a real treat if you have the space for a plant that will only yield a few cucumbers.

Pickles

It’s harvest time for our cucumbers. That means it’s time for homemade pickles!

Cucumbers in Pickling Spices

These are our pickling cucumbers and garlic cloves floating in pickling spices.

Boating Holiday

We just took a boating holiday with some friends in England. We were on the Oxford, Stratford and Grand Union canals.

Grand Union Canal

Among the many locks we passed through were the Hatton flight

Hatton Flight

Here is the boat we were on

Boat

Black Market Sunflower

Sunflower

This is very much a work in progress. I planted sunflowers for the first time last year, and this is the first year for this variety. It would seem I have a long way to go to acclimate this variety to local growing conditions by roguing out weak plants, then saving seed. I also need to experiment more to determine proper spacing and other growing conditions.

This particular variety is Russian. It is the black seeded type, which is also the type for oil seed. The vendor I got this seed from, Synergy Seeds, says it is a good variety for making sprouts.

In the meantime, it’s nice to have some pretty flowers in the garden! This is a short variety, growing to about 50cm high.

Capucijners

Purple Podded Capucijner

There is no food more typically Dutch, that you can grow in your garden, than the purple podded capucijner pea. In Holland nearly all the supermarkets carry jars of precooked capucijners, and everyone knows what they are.

The only edible part of the plant is the dried peas, which look like this (shown on a coffee saucer):

Dried Capucijner Peas

When cooked they stay whole, make their own rich gravy, and have a distinctive pea taste. They are frequently eaten with pork, but also taste nice just plain or cooked in other ways.