I’m curious. Cucumbers are closely related to melons – they’re in the same genus. And unripe melons taste pretty much exactly like cucumbers to me. (And then there are Armenian cucumbers, which are a melon.)
Are there any cucumber varieties that taste good as mature fruit? Is anyone trying to breed them? That may be a very interesting thing to select for. If nothing else, being able to eat your mature fruits that you’ve saved for seed would be a win.
Interesting question. I was wondering the same thing myself. I pick them and enjoy them small because when they get larger I think they are mushy and bitter. I was trying to think of something else I could do with all the fruit from the seed bearing cukes instead of just composting. I was thinking maybe a tincture for addition to skincare products but the ideal really would be one that could be eaten!
Good idea as a breeding project. I’ve eaten some of the cucumbers I have saved seeds from. I like the sweet gelatinous stuff surrounding the seeds.
There’s this cucamelon thing. I’m growing a grex of, but they’re much bigger than on the picture!
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Melothria scabra - Wikipedia
There is this one from EFN (they also have a grex that includes this one).
Oh, that’s very interesting! Yes, that’s exactly the kind of thing I was thinking of! Thank you!
Oh no, this will never end. Here lately I have been making a seed order once a week. I hope my wife doesn’t add these up.
Can’t say gagon tasted good nor did it thrive in my northern climate. It did grow well, but had trouble setting fruit. Not sure why, but only got one mature fruit and some more had started when season was about to finish. Plant at time was huge so it should have had more.
Thank you! Grow reports are very valuable.
Let’s see . . . the climate of the part of Bhutan those cucumbers are from is hot and humid. You have cold summers in Finland, right? Maybe it was an issue of not as many heat units as the plant needed.
What did the mature fruit you got taste like?
I was also thinking about this for cucumbers recently. I think it would be an interesting project to try to make a storage cucumber, it probably wouldn’t be useful as a replacement for immature cukes but would be something new.
Yes it looks like it’s quite hot during summer, but not exceptionally hot. Our record hot summers are as hot as averege summer months there, but maybe more importantly season starts there with similar temperatures as here, just earlier. I suppose they grow them as soon as they can so climate they are grown aren’t that different. Also they grew really well so they must have liked it. Maybe they just have habbit of postponing harvest so that first fruits don’t develop which would be just fine with longer season. Or possibly some self-incompatibility? I still have seeds for them so I might have them crossed at some point to landrace I’m working, but not for mature fruits. Taste I think wasn’t that different from other mature fruits. I don’t think they are used same as immature fruits where they come from so it’s not supposed to that special. Special is that they are used and how they are used. Humans have adapted.
Yacon tubers taste like cucumber. Store long, they get sweeter over time. In warmer climates or indoor greenhouses people get them to flower and cross.
I’d really like to grow yacon! I tried this year, and they don’t seem to like my climate very much. I like the idea so much that I’m probably going to try it again with a different cultivar, however.
With cucumbers that taste good mature, I’m thinking that it would be really nice to have fruits that taste good both mature and immature from a cucurbit species, especially if it’s one I can train to be drought tolerant, just like I’m hoping to do with squashes, melons, and watermelons.
Oh yeah true, you’re in the dessert. No wonder your cucumbers taste bitter. I’ve had that problem.
The first year i grew cucumbers it was a big succès. I was sharing them out. But my visiting friend said they tasted bitter.
To my surprise, chagrin’ and frustration.
I never managed to grow them since so that problem was solved.
Anyway. I think we have a problem with bitter tastes. I just add apple. When i was fat and obese i ate giant bowls of salad filled with nuts and fruit and sometime meat or fishies, i lost a third of my weight in a year.
I’m sure it’s the sugar industry. As a society we got stuck in bitter phobia and childlike sugar addictions.
In the middle ages in Europe spices were a serious thing. If a rich person gave a feast and a plate came with less than fifteen (!) herbs added it was frowned upon in Italy.
Sugar wiped out that culture.
Maybe we’ve got to try and reappreciate bitters as a revival. I guess it’s the adult thing to do. We all know végétales are good for us. They tell us as children because we hate them.
I remember almost puking after my mother forced me to eat them. Because my sister had found out she could refuse too if i was exempt. Now i love them. Andives make me a happy man. Yeah i’ll add apple.
But the bitters are interesting to me now.
I mean. I didn’t like beer the first time or coffee or cigarettes. But culture forces it on you when you’re turning adult. The ‘bad’ things i did to not look like a pussy really.
It’s a weird one coming to think of it.
Refined sugar, yes. Also artificial flavorings. You may be interested in The Dorito Effect, if you haven’t read it already. Basically, the author’s point is that we’ve been using sugar, salt, and artificial flavorings to make empty calories taste like food our bodies think is going to be full of vitamins, and then it isn’t, so our bodies crave more because they think if we just eat more, we’ll get those vitamins. And we still don’t. That’s why we’re getting so grotesquely obese and tend to want to snack constantly.
Bitterness serves a valuable purpose: it warns us that there are likely poisons in that plant, therefore we shouldn’t eat it. As with all things, “the dose makes the poison” – many plants have poisons that are actually healthy in very small doses, which is why a little bit of a bitter herb is often healthy to eat – usually as a spice or a medicine. An entire salad full of it would probably make you sick. But in small doses, they can be beneficial.
Yes, we can develop a taste for garbage or actual poisons if our bodies get used to them, especially if the substance is addictive. Alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine all spring to mind. Usually our bodies are wise and tell us, “No, don’t ingest that!”
Anyway, the bitterness is cucumbers is probably cucurbitan, which is a mild poison. I wouldn’t be surprised if cucurbits that are highly stressed out put as much of it as possible into their immature fruits, in order to discourage animals from eating them before the seeds are mature.
Atleast variety I had did not taste like cucumber to me. It clearly tasted like mild carrot that was sweeter than carrots are. Texture lot softer and reminds me more of an apple.
Yacon probably likes some water although I would say they are quite tolerant too. Atleast after they are established. They do tolerate cool until freezing that maybe you just want to get them started early. Your summer might more about survival rather than yield and tubers start to form later in the season. For me it has taken 3 months from transplant (maybe couple weeks headstart) so it doesn’t need that much time to produce. Maybe you could have them as under crop for something like corn?
They get sweeter over time. I don’t know what variety i’ve got. This report says pear selery taste.
I love how they stay crunchy so long.
I read some dutch people where making their own crosses.
They don’t flower outside a hoop house setting in those Dutch growers conditions.
I’ve put 2 inside the hoophouse to see i their flowers get viable seeds. And 5 in the garden.
Last year i had 1 of 2 flower but frost killed the plantaboveground stunting seed development.
Hoping the ones in the greenhouse flower earlier.
Very good post.