I like produce. I like to grow it. I like to eat it. I like to create recipes with it. I’m also kind of a nerd and like to get to know my produce. I like learning new or fun tidbits of info about the produce I’m growing/eating/baking. If you’re a weirdo like me then buckle up for this new series as I dive into a plethora of produce facts and share them with you.
10 Fun Facts About Cucumbers!
1. While most of the cucumbers grown in the US are green, cucumbers come in many sizes, shapes, textures, and colors, including white, yellow, and even orange.
2. Cucumbers eliminate bad breath. Just put a slice of cucumber on the roof of your mouth for about 30 seconds and your bad breath will be gone.
3. The outside waxy coating on a smooth cucumber skin can erase ink.
4. Honey bees are often transported to cucumber farms where there aren’t any bees because cucumbers need them for pollination.
5. You don’t even need soil to grow a cucumber! Cucumbers can be grown in water! Anyone ever tried this?
6. The cucumber is one of the earliest domesticated vegetables. At over 4,000 years old it was used in over 40 various remedies and was also used heavily as a supernatural ingredient for many spells, wards and religious ceremonies in Ancient Rome.
7. Cucumbers can actually cool the body and the blood, which is where the phrase “cool as a cucumber” came from!
8. Most of the flavor in the cucumber comes from the seeds. If you cut around the seeds you will change the overall flavor.
9. Cucumbers are one of the few veggies you cannot cook. They are always eaten raw, juiced or blended in smoothies. When cooked they turn to mush. Gross.
10. China is the world’s top producer of cucumbers with over 41 million TONS of cucumbers produced annually {that accounts for 75% of the world’s cucumber production!}. <– I had no idea!!!
Had you heard any of those fun facts before? Do you have any of your own to add? Is there a particular produce item you want to know more about? I take requests!
Grow on,
Mavis
Robin says
Cool facts! I’m growing an odd-looking cucumber this summer – Little Potato, from Seed Savers Exchange. Looks weird, tastes normal. 🙂
Renay says
Lemon cucumbers…we love them, too!
M says
I grew some little round and yellow lemon cucumbers last year 🙂
Renay says
Lemon cucumbers, we love them!
Deborah says
I love cucumbers. There are so many ways to use them. My grandmother used to make cucumber pickles. Wash and/or peel the cubes, slice thin, and put them in a brine of vinegar, salt and water. They were so good on a hot summer day. Store in the refrigerator. Good carefree times back then. Now, I’m the grandmother, and great grandmother. LOL time flies fast these days.
Laura A says
Julie Child has a recipe for braised cucumbers in her book! Havne’t tried making them though…
laura A says
Julia, whoops, typo
Lilli says
It’s definitely possible to boil at least some types of cucumber. There’s a German dish called Schmorgurken that consists of boiled cucumber. I don’t eat it because I think it’s gross, but it’s considered to be an important part of traditional German cooking.
Nora says
Hi there,
“Schmorgurken” are great! But the cucumbers are not boiled in fact, more or less sautéed for some minutes. Actually it makes a great summer recipe, traditional but with a modern twist! If anyone is interested I can provide Mavis with a nice, versatile version of the recipe.
Susan says
I think I’m going to love this new topic! Very interesting, how about beets when you can?
Hazel says
I cook cucumbers, they’re quite nice. Mostly in fat matchsticks in a stir fry (when DH will eat them. He won’t eat them raw.) I keep meaning to try a braised cucumber recipe, I think they’d be good. They’d take on the flavours of whatever you cook it with- I’m thinking maybe butter and dill?
Roz says
I also cook with cucumbers – carve out the seeds and gel (the mushiest part), leave on the skin, saute on high heat like a zucchini. Not as good when you take off the skin, though – then they do get a bit mushy! 🙂
Mable says
A lot of cucumber varieties do not need bees because they pollinate themselves. Also, cukes are regularly cooked in other cultures and in this country they are cooked to make relish.
Laura Z says
Yep. I know that cooked cucumbers are part of both Korean and Indian cuisine…. I think the trick is to cook them quickly.
Jill says
They are also a natural anti-inflammatory.
renay says
They are also particularly good in a Cucumber Vodka/Tonic, muddled with a leaf or two of mint! 😉
Laura A says
i love taking my cucumber peels and putting them in a pitcher of water in the fridge. Cucumber water is very refreshing!
Sherry in Sumner says
When my sisters and I were recently on a vacation ending in Belgium, we checked into a hotel in Brussels. In the lobby was one of those large clear containers with a spigot in it. It was filled with water and sliced cucumbers. And indeed it was totally refreshing! Now I know what to do when I have an over abundance of cucumbers and can’t eat them fast enough.
Dan W - Iowa Beekeeper says
Here is a fun fact. Each cucumber blossom needs at least 14 visits by pollinators such as honey bees in order for the cucumber to be it’s perfect form and resistant to disease like blossom rot.
I am a beekeeper and I read yours posts daily. I think you would enjoy beekeeping. It would enhance your garden and add honey to your recipes and you could sell it at your roadside cart.
Bees and chickens go together like peas and carrots.
Take a class this winter, find a mentor (or someone who rattles on about bees like me) and find a local club who will help. It is addictive.
Mavis Butterfield says
I would love to have bees! And honey and beeswax to make candles.
Lace Faerie says
My sister has kept bees for years, in both Washington and Hawaii. They changed to the Flow Hive system and LOVE IT!
They were amazed at the increase in the hives’ production of honey. It’s gentler to the bees as no inevitable, accidental deaths. Less trauma means the girls are gentler, too!
Sherri Bertrand says
I tried growing cucumbers but they got taken over by either stink bugs or squash bugs. They both look similar to me. How do you get rid of them? they are everywhere here! I live in the northern part of Virginia.
JoAnn Moran says
I just watched Julie Julia and apparently Julia Child braised cucumbers.
Chris says
Hey Mavis,
Actually there is a traditional German side dish, braised cucumbers! It is delicious, you should try it. You have to remove the seeds though, they can get really mushy.
Your German reader, Chris