The Cucumber Plant that once dreamed ..... - Journals

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The Cucumber Plant that once dreamed .....
Jan 31, 2009 at 10:36 PM
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- MtnDesertMama
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Tale of the humble cucumber that once dreamed.....

I live in Western Colorado, and for those of you who do not know, Western Colorado is a desert, dry, barren and hot in the summer. We moved into our home 4 nearly 5 years ago and spied an area in our back yard that would make a perfect garden. But, it has never been cultivated before, and this area that I live in has very high akaline in the soil, it leaches up from the ground in barren lots in big white splotches. So gardening is tricky, time comsuming and not always rewarding. Coming from Idaho where the soil is a deep, rich, black volcanic soil that would grow anything, gardening here has proven.....disappointing to say the least. We started by spending 3 years composting in what was to become our garden. We did pretty good....in one area, but not so much in the whole garden. But we were tired of waiting so last summer we planted.

We went all out, sweet corn, pumpkins, carrots, peas, beans, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, brocolli, lettuce and along the fence line we planted herbs and cantalope. 2 months after planting we had the smoothest, weed free plot of mud you've ever seen.
Sooo I figured maybe I needed to presoak the seeds. I started over near mid July. Turning the soil over again I replanted the now soaked seeds. All that did was create mystery plants. I had plants coming up everywhere, even in the rows I redone. I was just happy something came up at this point. I had beans, peas, brocolli, zucchini, lettuce and eventually I found the cucumber plants behind the zucchini. But all was not well in garden land.

The beans were murdered by the neighborhood cats who peed on them, the peas commited suicide when they shriveled up in the heat after the first blossoms appeared. The brocolli bravely struggled giving me 1 floret. The tomatoes gave up after only 2 weeks...too much heat. The zucchini became my pride and joy, 3 1/2 feet tall and 6 feet in circumfrence. It produced tons of zucchini which I gave surpisingly few away. Instead I dehydrated them (not recommended unless you like zucchini flavored leather), froze some sliced (again not recommended unless you like zucchini flavored mush), and froze some shredded (the best choice). That zucchini plant made me so happy, it grew like a champion until the hostile take over by the squash bugs. It bravely fought through that take over. Day after day my husband would go out and spray the plant with soapy water. I rarely did, those squash bug CREEPED ME OUT!!! Oh my heck, have you ever seen the baby squash bugs....all black legs and little gray bodies. They're not natural I'm telling you! They are definetly made from alien DNA, I swear c....r....e.....e....p.....y!!!

My lettuce grew okay, but came out bitter. Apparently heat makes them bitter. A few days in the fridge seemed to help that. The corn, never grew, nor did the pumpkins. The radishes got about 1/4 inch high and died in the heat.

It was my two little cucumber plants that hid in the shade of the growing zucchini that surpised me. I transplanted them at the first of August to an new area so that they would not crossbreed with the zucchini. Those two little cucumber plants began in late August producing tiny little blossoms which grew into sooo many pickling cucumbers. Some small, some so large they looked like small zucchini's. These definetly strived to become Valisk's! By mid September I had harvested nearly all of the cucumbers, so off I went in search of fresh dill to make kosher dills.

I found fresh dill and fresh garlic and spent a whole saturday canning my homegrown cucumbers, grown with love, pride, tears and mud. Then it was time to wait. For three long months so long I actually forgot I made them !!!

Today I wanted pickles with my sandwhich and remembered my hard earned booty sitting quietly on my garage shelf. With great anticipation and some trepidation I opened the jar and took a bite of my homegrown treasure.

My two small cucumbers plant dreamed I'm sure of one day becoming the worlds most amazing pickles....and they fulfilled that dream. That first bite was tart, sweet, crunchy and all things good about a pickle. Ahhhhhhhh, sweet reward! Fianlly 4 long years of waiting and I have FINALLY enjoyed the 'fruits' of my labor!

So the moral of this story is....work hard and one day you too and become the pickle you dream of being!

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