My very first cucumber- La Diva F1

La Diva F1 cucumber

Its time to talk cucumbers!  Finally, after a whole years wait I cut my very first cucumber at the tail end of June.  This may not seem very momentous but consider that all my plants last year wilted and most of my cucumber seedlings this year did the same and you can understand that to me, this is more than just a cucumber.  This is a battle between a particular vegetable and I, and I finally won.  I cannot help but smile thinking back to that day; I was so thrilled and my boyfriend thought I was such a nut.

Nobody is going to grow cucumbers for the flowers alone, but they do add a little splash of vibrant yellow 

After watching my baby.... er..cucumber get fatter and fatter and straighten out over two weeks, which doesn’t seem like very long really, it was decided in conference with the mother that it was time.  I forced the boyfriend out to admire it in all it’s glory on the plant (he really couldn’t have cared less but did admit he was impressed at its length and growth rate having been forced to look at it a couple of weeks before) before cutting it and carrying it around for the next ten minutes like a proud mother.  The sense of joy I felt at clutching 15 inches of green water based vegetable to my bosom is immeasurable, and needless to say absolutely nobody was allowed to go near it with teeth until it had sat in the bottom of the fridge and I had swollen just a little more with pride at every visit until I gave in and cut him open. 

17th June: Young and curly

Just look at it, isn’t it beautiful?  I hope cucumber production never becomes blasé.  I think they are one of the best vegetables to grow because they grow so fast and so satisfyingly big.  I basically photographed every move the first one made, and the photos of its growth are only taken over a week or so, which is difficult to believe looking back but the dates on the photos do not lie. 

19th June: Still a bit bendy!       21st June: Straightening out and fattening up

I have several varieties of cucumber, some known, some unknown which is always fun.  Luckily this is a known one: La Diva f1 by Gardeners Kitchen, an outdoor variety and I declare myself a fan.  Of all my cucumbers I would happily say that this is my favourite.  It shot up the cane faster than I thought possible and set about making cucumbers with little to no fuss.  Described on their website as ‘Bitter free, sweet and seedless Producing glossy green cucumbers’.  Ok couple of bones to pick with that statement; firstly that as shown by the photo of the sliced cucumber there are clearly seeds in this cucumber.  What I think they must mean by ‘seedless’ are seeds that aren’t so huge that you find yourself choking on one half way through your sandwich which has happened to me with another variety.  But they are right; definitely no choking hazard here.  Secondly: ‘glossy’.  Glossy??  I may not be an expert cucumber grower but I have eaten a fair few in my time and I have never, ever seen a glossy one.  A dull sheen maybe but we aren’t going to be achieving high shine with some serious polishing.

26th June: D-day.  I think you will agree that is a 'dull shine' and not a gloss

Its not until you devour your first home grown one of the season that you realise how shop bought ones are basically watery tasteless disks in your salad.  This one has a very pleasant almost minty flavour, and while my others don’t lack flavour I do find this minty-ness wins out. Mmmm, refreshing.  Also luckily while the skin is solidly built and robust, it is not inedibly tough.

Nicely sliced, and clearly with seeds

I have not photographed every cucumber I have grown because that would be terribly, terribly sad, but a few have turned out a little interestingly so I will share them with you in another post.