Earlier this week, I was out poking around in the garden and saw that everyone was growing happily, but otherwise not much was going on. The tomato plants are showing the first signs of tomatoes, the cucumbers had lots of flowers and the beans were just beginning to develop. All good and nothing much to worry about right.
The very next day, Sweetie poked his nose into the garden and asked when I was planning to harvest the cucumbers.
“When they are ready.” I told him.
“I think they’re ready.”
Nonsense. They are still flowers. They were yesterday, it takes a bit longer than one day to go from flowers to harvest. Or so I thought. He looked at me like I was crazy and dropped it. Well that got me.
Out to the garden and looked at the cucumbers and there were four giant cucumbers. I mean these things looked like a child sized football. Of course I harvested them, but there was a problem. I had been planning on pickling most of the cucumbers and these babies wouldn’t fit in any of the jars I have.
They were just the first of the harvest, so I guess I could eat them. Back inside I started peeling one and sliced it to make a cucumber sandwich.
“You don’t even need the bread for a sandwich with those,” Sweetie joked.
I did. A little cream cheese smeared between two slices of cucumber make a darn good (if a little soggy) sandwich. Not too harsh on the diet either. Those cucumbers were nice an sweet too. Normally when a cucumber gets big it gets bitter too. Not these, they might have been big, but they were still young.
Now I know: keep a close eye on the cucumbers and be ready to get the pickling equipment out at a moments notice.