On Thursday evening, watering my little vegetable plot, I noticed the cucumbers had started to form. This was very exciting for me for a number of reasons. First, I didn't know for a while that my cucumber seeds had taken. After I returned home from a trip in June, it looked like everything else (excluding the radishes and okra I planted) seemed to have sprouted but not the cukes. I heard the cucumbers are hard to grow and tend to get moldy so I thought, oh well, I'll try again another time. But then this plant that I'd mistaken for something else-maybe even a weed--started to grow pretty yellow flowers. What could it have been? Had I planted squash? No, I hadn't! It had to be the cucumber. It grew slowly at first and then quite rapidly, it's little tendrils embracing (closer to strangling, actually) the shiso, the basil, the pepper and tomatoes. I waited. When would the flowers give way to crunchy pickle sized cucumbers? More waiting. Thursday night is when I first noticed them. They were miniature and dark green. I went out with friends after watering but those little guys were still on my mind. Sitting at the bar I kept thinking about them and how they would grow soon and what they would taste like. (I often have veggies on the mind.) Then last night I had a dream wherein, amongst other things, I was eating my cucumbers. This morning it was time to water again. And to my astonishment, my dream was real, a portend! A few cucumbers had grown-as if overnight- to full size. They were spiny and had little bumps on their skin but I smoothed them off, washed them in the hose, and ate one. Delicious! Crunchy! Perfectly tender! The first cucumbers I've ever grown and they tasted delicious. Oh happy dream. You are real.
On Thursday evening, watering my little vegetable plot, I noticed the cucumbers had started to form. This was very exciting for me for a number of reasons. First, I didn't know for a while that my cucumber seeds had taken. After I returned home from a trip in June, it looked like everything else (excluding the radishes and okra I planted) seemed to have sprouted but not the cukes. I heard the cucumbers are hard to grow and tend to get moldy so I thought, oh well, I'll try again another time. But then this plant that I'd mistaken for something else-maybe even a weed--started to grow pretty yellow flowers. What could it have been? Had I planted squash? No, I hadn't! It had to be the cucumber. It grew slowly at first and then quite rapidly, it's little tendrils embracing (closer to strangling, actually) the shiso, the basil, the pepper and tomatoes. I waited. When would the flowers give way to crunchy pickle sized cucumbers? More waiting. Thursday night is when I first noticed them. They were miniature and dark green. I went out with friends after watering but those little guys were still on my mind. Sitting at the bar I kept thinking about them and how they would grow soon and what they would taste like. (I often have veggies on the mind.) Then last night I had a dream wherein, amongst other things, I was eating my cucumbers. This morning it was time to water again. And to my astonishment, my dream was real, a portend! A few cucumbers had grown-as if overnight- to full size. They were spiny and had little bumps on their skin but I smoothed them off, washed them in the hose, and ate one. Delicious! Crunchy! Perfectly tender! The first cucumbers I've ever grown and they tasted delicious. Oh happy dream. You are real.
