Nicole Johnsey Burke traces cucumbers from the Himalayas through Egypt and Rome to modern farms, then explains why China now grows most of the world's supply. She covers pickling history, how to grow them in your garden, and why frequent harvesting keeps plants producing.
Questions this episode answers
95% water.
Worldwide production was 57 million tons in 2010; China produced 40.7 million tons.
A seed dated to 9750 BC was reportedly found in Myanmar (discovered 1970).
1870.
The Pure Food and Drug Act, passed in 1906.
Welcome to the Grow youw Self podcast. Surprising stories about the food we eat and inspiring conversations about what it really takes to live the whole and happy life we're all craving. I'm Nicole Johnsey Burke, your host and the owner of Rooted Garden and Gardenary Incorporated and author of Kitchen Garden Revival. Is it obvious yet? I'm kind of obsessed with the kitchen garden. The kitchen garden may just be the answer that you've been looking for on your own journey to health and wholeness in this podcast. It's gonna inspire and enable you to make garden magic right in your very own space. If you're someone who wants to eat more good food that's actually good for you, fill your day with great stories you want to text to a friend. If you wanna hear more about inspiring people and do a little bit each day better than the way you did it, The Grow Yourself is what your ears have been waiting for. You won't just learn about gardening here, you'll learn how to make growing as a person a big part of your everyday life. And your life, your community. And your garden, of course, will be all the better for it. So put in your headphones, turn up the volume, and let's take a walk, go on a drive, or just hang out in the kitchen garden together. Welcome to Grow Yourself. What did the squash say to the cucumber when he saw the pumpkin patch? Oh my gourd. Oh my gosh, what a bad pun. Let's kick off the Grow Yourself podcast in a better way. How about that? Today we are talking about how to be cool as a cucumber because cucumbers are super cool. You're going to learn all about this vegetable that we love to snack on all summer long. You're going to learn where it came from, where it's grown in the United States, and how to maximize the plants you're growing in your own organic kitchen garden. Let's all learn how to be cool as a cucumber. Sound cool? I think so. Today's episode is brought to you by the Gardenary Garden Coaching. Gardenary has certified over 200 garden coaches around the United States, and we are now offering virtual coaching sessions on the Gardenary site. So whether you want to learn how to grow cucumbers, you want to set up your garden in the first place and build some beautiful trellises and raised beds. Or if you've got cucumbers and they're not growing, we can help you with every different level in your kitchen garden. So go check it out@gardenary.com coaches. And we can get you set up with a coach right away to have a virtual garden coach session in your garden. So go check it out. Gardenary.com coaches are in today's show notes@gardenary.com blog. Now let's learn all about how to be cool as a cucumber and where that saying came from in the first place. Welcome to grow youwself. Let's go. What did the carrot say to the cucumber that owed him some money? He said, hey, man, you knew the dill. Now you are in a pickle. And I could not carrot at all. Do you guys love these vegetable puns as much as I do? I know. So cheesy. And I have to say it's getting harder to get good puns on vegetables. So if you have some good puns, please let us know. You see what I did there? So funny, right? All right, today I'm talking about one of my favorite plants to grow in the garden. Mostly because it's. It never gets wasted. I don't know about you, but sometimes I grow stuff, and it's beautiful and absolutely Instagramable. But, you know, my kids don't eat it. I don't eat it. And then I'm like, ooh, was there a point to that? Besides taking photos? Cucumbers are not that thing. They are delicious. I really think there's no such thing as good as a cucumber straight from the vine in the garden, as long as you grew it right, and it's not bitter. And we're gonna learn why it's so fun to grow your own and how to do so. In today's episode, I'm going to read you from my book, Kitchen Garden Revival. Have you bought it yet? Have you bought it yet? Why have you not bought it yet? Go check it out@Amazon.com in chapter five, you learn all about the plant families. And one of them, of course, is the plant family. That includes cucumbers. Cucurbitaceae. When you're ready to test your gardening skills, it's time to grow Cucurbitaceae or the cucumber family. The plants in this family are some I cannot get enough of, like cucumbers and watermelons. These plants do best when planted by seed sown directly into the garden. And they need quite warm weather before they're ready to take off. There's no doubt about it. These are warm season plants. Many plants in this family either need a trellis to grow on or a large spot in the garden. Summer squash and zucchini grow into large plants, whereas the long vines of cucumber and winter squash grow up a trellis or along the ground for what seems like forever. These plants love a consistent amount of water and are prone to disease and pests, such as pow mildew and squash vine borer. Dun, dun, dun. In other words, buyer beware. There is a bit of a challenge to growing these crops, but the payoff? It's delicious. When you're standing in the garden pathway with cucumber juice dripping down your chin, you know you have arrived in kitchen garden heaven. Let us talk about the cucumbers today. Cucumbers are so delicious, so fun when you get to pull them from the vine. And you're gonna learn everything there is to know about cucumbers. Actually, there's way more to know than you can learn on a podcast episode. But, oh, my word, you're about to have your eyes opened to what's going on with your cucumbers, and it's gonna be fun. So, first of all, cool as a cucumber. Where did that even come from? Well, physicians in the 17th century would pres a fever patient to go lay down on a bed of cucumbers. No, really, I'm serious. So literally, the term cool as a cucumber came from this idea that cucumbers actually have the ability to cool the temperature of the blood. This is why when you go to a fancy spa place, you get cucumber slices put on your eyelids. Or when you have a spa day at home, since no one can go to the spa right now, or in most places they can't, we just put cucumbers on our eyes, and suddenly we're going to look five to 10 years younger. In fact, as I'm listening to talking about this, I think I'm going to go do this right away. Cucumbers are packed with vitamins. Folic acid, vitamin C, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc. They're basically a multivitamin in a bite. But here's the fun thing. Cucumbers are actually 95% water. So cucumbers have been shown to be the perfect restoration thing to eat after you've, like, a big workout or a big game or, you know, instead of drinking a Gatorade, you should definitely snack on a cucumber. And if you're trying to help curb hunger, that is eat less junk food, then cucumbers have literally been shown to do that. You eat them up, and boom, you are less interested in eating chips. They have a great ability to stabilize our Metabolism and help us even when we have. What's that thing called? Oh yeah, a hangover. So they say that if you wake up and you got a headache and you had a little too much, then cucumbers actually have been shown to stabilize your body and help you even get rid of headaches. What? Is there anything a cucumber can't do? They can help your skin, tighten your pores, clear your wrinkles, eliminate dark circles under your eyes, and even they claim, make your cellulite look smaller. I'm pretty sure that cucumbers are the answers to all of our problems. But it has not always been this way. In fact, Samuel Johnson is known for saying a cucumber should be well sliced, dressed with pepper and vinegar and thrown out because is good for nothing. So how do we get from Samuel Johnson and his claim that cucumbers are good for nothing to today when clearly cucumbers are like the cure all for everything, including cellulite? Well, let's go way back to cucumbers. Beginning. It is one of the earliest domesticated vegetables, which means one of the earliest vegetables to be grown on purpose. Around 4,000 years ago is our first, I guess, evidence that this, this plant was around. In fact, they have found this is even longer than 4,000 years ago, 9,750 BC. So that's like what, 11,000 years ago they found cucumbus harduike, which is small and bitter, but was native to the Himalayas. And they think it may have been the earliest evidence of a cucumber. They found it in Myanmar in 1970. So there were seeds that they found. So they found the seeds, checked them out and they claim that they're from 9750 BC. I mean, these archaeologists are just amazing. How can you do that from a seed? Anyway, cucumbers then, you know, started basically they think India, Himalaya area, ended up in Egypt and were super popular, you know, in the times of the pyramids and the Egyptian rulers, etc. So research has shown that Egyptians were brining cucumbers. They were eating, you know, including them in all their dishes. The poem of Gilgamesh that was written in 2100 BC mentions cucumbers. And in the Bible, the Hebrew Bible Numbers 11, 5, this is when the Jewish people are in Egypt. It says we remember or they had left Egypt, I guess, going to Israel. We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers and the melons and, and the leeks and the onions and the garlic. They were eating good in Egypt. Right. So, yes, cucumbers have been around for quite a long time. Started in India, Himalayas, moved to Egypt, and then they say that basically Indians really started to domesticate them, to grow them, moved to the Middle east, and then eventually made their way to Europe when they did. Oh, also somewhere in there, Turkey, like, really latched onto cucumbers. I don't know if you guys have, like, had Turkish dishes or cuisine, but a lot of them contain cucumbers, which are so delicious, all kinds of different ways. So then they made their way to the Roman Empire, and Romans fell in love with them. Supposedly even created greenhouses specifically to grow cucumbers year round so that they could never have time without cucumbers. Supposedly Romans used cucumbers not just in their food, but for all kinds of remedies to treat their bad eyesight, cure scorpion bites, and even, like, women who are trying to have children supposedly could carry around cucumbers and it would help them with fertility. I don't know. I don't make this stuff up. I just read it to you. So emperor Tiberius from 14 to 16 AD demanded that he would eat a cucumber every day of the year. So he ate them in the summer, and then in the winter. It sounds like they would literally have these, like, little mini greenhouses, these little beds. They'd move around inside to get the sunlight on them so that he could have a cucumber every day of his life. I mean, this guy, he clearly, he loved his cucumbers. It was very special. All right, so after Rome fell, cucumbers weren't quite as popular, but then kind of started to pop back up, I guess, in Europe with the English population. But they weren't as popular as they had been in Roman times or Egyptian. I guess the English people just didn't quite catch on. But it does appear during the time of Henry viii, Catherine of Aragon supposedly demanded them for her Spanish salads. And then by the time Elizabeth I ascended the English throne, five distinct cucumber varieties were grown in England. The common, the Turkish, the adder, the pear, and the Spanish. Now, Christopher Columbus, when he heads to America, he brings cucumber seeds with him and he starts growing them in an experimental gard garden. Brought them to Haiti in 1494, and they were grown by Spanish settlers there and started getting distributed across the New World, in North America and in South America. Supposedly, trappers introduced them to the Native Americans in the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains. And the tribes were like, hey, we like this. So they started growing cucumbers and Watermelons in North and South Dakota. So suddenly we have these. It's pretty neat, right? To see how cucumber. I mean, they start kind of in the middle of the world, over in India and Egypt, and then eventually move their way over to the Americas. So much so that in 1539, De Soto said that cucumbers in Florida tasted better than the ones that were growing in Spain. And American colonial gardens are all known for growing cucumbers all over the place. In fact, one of my favorite parts of visiting Monticello in Charlottesville is Thomas Jefferson supposedly had created these really cool, like, natural trellises for his cucumbers. Super beautiful, like, all this natural wood, and they're just covered over in cucumber vines. So then something happened. This goes back to that Samuel Johnson quote, something happened here. And Suddenly during the 18th century, this. This very bad rumor started surfacing that cucumbers were poisonous, and if they weren't cooked, they presented a horrible, serious health risk. Suddenly, the word cucumber was known as cow cumber. So cow cumber. So instead of it being something good for you, something that should be included in all kinds of foods and everything, suddenly everyone was afraid to eat it and said it was only good for animals. So sad, right? So cucumber use really went down across the North America and didn't really change again until the 19th century. And then started to pick up the pace until what we see now where we all. I mean, cucumbers are just. They're like miracle food, right? So, yeah, cow cumber was taken on as the word for cucumber. And basically they said it was only good for animal fodder. Not today, though, friends. So in 2010, worldwide cucumber production was 57 million tons, with most of the world's production actually being in China. They account for 40.7 million tons of cucumbers. What? That's crazy. So one of the great uses of cucumbers, which I am sure you are well aware of, is the pickle. What's the dill pickle? So pretty neat. Pickling has been going on with cucumbers from the very beginning, but definitely picked up pace in the 19th century. So the most famous cucumber of the 19th century was the one preserved by H.J. heinz. You guys heard of that guy? H E I N Z. So Heinz began bottling pickles in 1870 as a tasty addition to the monotonous diet of meat and potatoes by most Americans at that time. So his idea was not just a success, but also spurred interest in all this, cucumber hybridization, meaning kind of bringing together different types of cucumbers to provide the perfect pickle. So kosher dills, have you seen that? Kosher, yeah. So kosher is related back to the Jewish culture. And pickled vegetables have been like a soil staple for Jewish communities for many, many years. What I read about was the Jews living in the Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Russia that basically were pretty tired of just meat and potatoes or bread and potatoes in some situations where they had no meat. And so they brought up. They started adding pickles to their diet. So they would pickle in these large barrels, cucumbers, beets and cabbage, and would let it ferment for, you know, a couple weeks, bring it to a dark cel, and the pickles helped them get through the dark, cold winter months when all they got to eat was potatoes and bread. It brought color, flavor, delicious garden remnants back to the table. And so I think some of that carried over into the US as pickles began to gain in popularity in the 1900s. So what I read about was that immigrants brought kosher dill pickles to America. So cucumbers would be washed in these large, you know, groups and then left to ferment for a few weeks to several months. And then they would have. They worked on doing, like, less fermenting, shorter fermenting, and they ended up with these really pretty green pickles. So pickles got sold on push carts in immigrant parts of New York City. And over time, Jewish owned shops started selling pickles straight out of the barrel and began appearing all over New York City. And it became such a profitable business inside the Jewish community. That kind of became something that they were known for. So pretty cool, right? I didn't know that about pickles like that. It had kind of history in the Jewish community and especially over in those colder parts of Europe and Russia where they needed some variety on their table. I can relate to that. So home pickling then became more popular in the 1850s. We got two essential canning tools invented during that time. First, this guy named James Young, he created paraffin wax, which that allowed food to be sealed in a jar. And then this guy named John Mason, he created this thing called a mason jar. You ever heard of it? So mason jars were made from heavyweight glass and were able to hang on through high temperatures. So suddenly, instead of having this huge barrel, you know, where you had to have the brine and the cabbages and the beets and the cucumbers, suddenly people could just make little glass jars of pickles. At home. Hello. That's where we are now. Right? So, yeah. So then we had Heinz, who really took off with this pickling idea and started obviously making a whole, like, you know, company, like, I'm trying to think of the word where it's, like, a big deal for Heinz pickles. I don't know about you, but my family still buys, like, Heinz products. I had no idea it all went back to the cucumber. In fact, Heinz was so into what he was doing and having safe pickles for everyone that he lobbied for new food safety regulations so that his competitors couldn't sell their pickles that weren't as safely produced. And they did this. Sent. He sent his people to D.C. to fight for this law to be passed, and it got passed in 1906 as the pure Food and Drug Act. All right, have you ever heard of Food and Drug. Something that later became the Food and Drug Administration. In other words, the fda. Have you heard of the fda? Yeah, Food and Drug Administration. My husband is in pharmaceuticals. He's a scientist working on drug discovery. And FDA is kind of a common three letters we use around these parts. So pretty crazy to know that the FDA was basically founded as a result of pickles. What? And Mr. Hines, who basically just wanted to make sure he could have a monopoly on the pickle industry. All right, so now we know how pickles came to be, how cucumbers came to be, how we got them here in North America, how they're not just for cows. They are for people, too. And they can help you with all kinds of stuff like cellulite and hangovers and bags under your eyes. No, seriously, they're actually so good for you. So let's talk about where cucumbers are grown in the United States now. You know, one of my missions here on the Grow youw Self podcast is to get you to understand the surprising stories of the fact that most of our food is grown in just a few place, and most of our food travels a very long way before it reaches our plate. And that is definitely the case with cucumbers as well. So cucumbers are grown in five states, basically, and really in two primary states. So they're mostly grown in Florida and in Michigan. So the ones grown in Florida are typically grown for fresh use, and the ones grown in Michigan are typically grown for the pickling type. Talk about the different distinct types of cucumbers, and we'll get into a little bit more of how they're produced in the U.S. so there's the seedless, the seeded and the mini. There's at least maybe up to 100 different kinds of cucumbers. What the English cucumber is that one that's really long and narrow, and it's usually marketed in a plastic wrap. That's because it has a super thin skin. So they add that plastic wrap to protect it, you know, because it's going to travel a long way from Florida or Michigan. Not from Michigan, from Florida. So they protect it and it's smoother. And usually you don't have to peel it because they're really sweet and soft little skins. Those cucumbers tend to be milder, easier on your stomach. Kirby Cucumbers are the small ones, and those are the ones that are typically used for, say, pickling. They got a wide variety, from yellow to dark green. And let's see, we've got Persian cucumbers. These are called burpless. Those cucumbers typically tend to be smaller, sweeter, and seedless. I don't know if you've ever seen Persian cucumbers kind of all lined up. I've seen them at Trader Joe's. They'll have, like, five little Persian cucumbers you can buy in one little package. So all these different types of cucumbers are typically used in three different ways. They're either used fresh and whole, fresh and sliced, or pickled. So fresh whole would be, you know, where you're just buying it as a consumer at the grocery store. Like the whole cucumber, you buy it, bring it home, slice it up, use it however you want to in your cooking. Then they have the. Where it's created to be sliced. So this is where they're growing these cucumbers to be used in the food industry. So for a grocery store to slice them up and sell them, or for a, you know, I don't know, salad restaurant or just a typical restaurant or a deli, you know, say Subway, with all their little cucumber slices, they're gonna put on a sandwich. That's the second type of usage for the cucumbers. And then finally the pickling type. Right. So that's the one we know is like the bumpy, skinned gherkin. Smaller pick. Smaller cucumbers are generally used for pickles. So. So, yeah, so like I said, most of the cucumbers are grown in just five states. And you'll find that the different area is because of what kind they're growing. So in Michigan and Wisconsin, they are growing the types to be pickled. And then in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina, they're growing the types for fresh usage. So whether it's for consumers like us to just buy from the grocery or if it's for, you know, say restaurants like Subway or something, to have all their cucumber slices, there are way more cucumbers grown for pickle production than for all the combined fresh usages. Right. So most things are going into the canning and fermented pickle process rather than us getting to eat them fresh, which I do love. I love like pickles, don't get me wrong. But it is a bummer that we don't get to eat more of them fresh. But you realize a lot of it is due to the fact that it's just hard to keep them fresh and crunchy and ready to eat when they have to travel so far. I don't know about you, but I myself, even those special English kind or Persian kind that have the nice soft skin, I've bought expensive ones like organic. I hate to say how much they cost. 2$3 a piece and they go gooey and ooey before I get to eat them in the fridge. So common situations. So generally what they're doing is just growing them to be preserved and pickled. Right. Right away. So that's how our cucumbers are grown in the US Pretty crazy, right? So if you're buying a cucumber. Oh, and then I must say, obviously what they are saying now is that a lot of our fresh cucumber usage is being offset by Mexican growth. So I know here, I've noticed in the grocery store when we have cucumbers, especially in the winter, they're always in the grocery store. If you haven't figured that out, you gotta go listen to some of my first episodes about the grocery store setup in the US But I've never been to the grocery any month of the year and not seen fresh cucumbers. And that's because most of them are grown in Mexico. So like right now in the Chicago area in the middle of the summer, I could probably find more locally grown cucumbers. But even, even in times when it can be grown locally, if you check the tags, a lot of times you're going to find that most cucumbers that are available in the store are grown in Mexico or Florida. So check out the tag, see how far your cucumbers have traveled before they hit your, your plate. So knowing that, that, you know, cucumbers really aren't meant to take road trips. We are, at least we were before, you know, pandemic. Let's talk about how to grow your own. Sound good? I think so. All right, so here are a couple of steps to growing your own cucumbers and maximizing your harvest. So like I read from you, read to you from Kitchen Garden Revival. Cucumbers are in the Cucurbetaceae family or the gourd family. They are best, I think, personally planted from seed directly into the garden. You can start with transplants and starting your own seeds indoors. I've found when I've done both in my clients gardens, I'll plant a seedling that's transplanted as well as a direct seeded plant. And over time, within two to three weeks, the direct seeded variety generally catches up and performs better over time. I think this is because it doesn't have to go through the stress and I think the seedlings are pretty fragile. So my recommendation is to start from seed. Start from great seed, organic seed, hopefully that's been produced somewhere near you. Plant them. What I try to do is cover as much with compost, straight up compost. So plant it in your 103 blend that you learn about in my book, but also cover the top with compost. And then I prefer growing vining varieties so you can find some bush cucumber types. But I've found I get healthier, more productive plants when I grow on a long vine. So I always love to plant them by trellises. If you haven't been following along on Instagram, I just added six new obelisk trellises just for cucumbers in my garden this summer. So stay tuned. I planted them pretty late, but you can stay tuned and see how they get. So plant them on a little bit of a hill you don't want to bury too deeply. And then the trick, the trick, the trick with cucumbers is keeping them well watered. Cucumbers are easy to grow, but there is this thing where if there's any kind of stress during the process, if you don't get enough water on them, the soil's not great. Their fruits can end up better. We had this situation probably my second year in Houston. We had a ton of cucumbers. I am talking a, a ton off of this one area. We were vining plants, but somewhere in the middle of the growth period, our watering schedule got off and they didn't get the right amount of water. And guys, we could not get the bitterness to go away. Every single fruit we picked from there was gorgeous, big, full, like totally Instagram worthy, but totally not edible. I mean, it was so incredibly bitter. So you do want to be sure that you're monitoring the water situation. Cucumbers, as you learned, are 95% water, which means watering is super, super important. So keep them well watered. You want to make sure you're not planting these outside of a frost date. So these are warm season plants. They will not tolerate frost. So you've got to plant them after the threat of frost occurs and before the threat of frost returns. So this is definitely inside that, like summer warm season period. So keep them well watered. I would say daily, before they come up and start to grow. And then as they are vining, you'll want to keep them well watered. Like literally watching the plants, I would be checking moisture, especially as it heats up pretty often. The leaves are one of the first indicators. They're pretty fragile leaves and you'll see them droop. They'll definitely be an indication to you of whether or not your plants are getting enough water. We've noticed. You know, as soon as it gets super hot, you get this incredible wilting. Like they just are very great at indicating the stress that the plant's going through. So watch the leaves and you'll know when to add more water. I love coming back with more compost. You guys know I love compost. So add in compost and side dress your plants to keep them well fed. And then you can do a little bit of your own pollination. So if you're growing plants that are not female only flowers, then you do need to realize that the flowers have to get pollinated. So you'll get male flowers first. They'll have a straight little stem behind them, and then the female flowers are going to have more of like a bulge underneath the flowers. You can do your own pollination using a paintbrush or even just removing a male flower and kind of rubbing it onto a female flower. Of course, you want to be welcoming bees and butterflies into your garden to help you with this process, but you can also help it along yourself with a paintbrush or just moving one male flower over a bunch of female flowers. You can also add in some female only plants, so I'm growing this year some diva plants. Diva, hello. That means it is female only, so they won't need pollination. They basically are self pollinating. So you can add some of those varieties into your cucumber garden as well. Then with cucumbers, it's super important to pick them, pick them, pick them early and often. You do not want cucumbers hiding. They'll end up hiding under all that foliage. And the last thing you want is this huge cucumber that's really pulling all the nutrients and resources from your vine because that's gonna keep the vine from producing more cucumbers. Now, it is important to realize one cucumber plant's gonna produce generally about 10 cucumbers for you. So a lot of people assume that just because they planted one or two seeds that they're never gonna have to buy cucumbers again. That's not the case. So if you want a lot of cucumbers, you gotta grow a lot of cucumber plants. I'm trying on mine six trellises. I'm probably growing 4 12, maybe 24 plants, something like that. So we shall see. If I get 240 cucumbers. That sounds incredible and impossible, but we'll see if it's possible. All right, so those are some tips on growing your own cow cumbers. Cucumbers. Now, let's finish up with a food fight. Cucumbers versus zucchini. So cucumbers and zucchini are both in the same family, Cucurbitaceae, and. But they are different. So in general, the growth habit is a big difference. Zucchini is not going to vine. So zucchini is a big, bushy plant. Instead of growing it up and over, you're going to need to give it a lot of space. I typically don't plant zucchinis in my raised beds because they take up so much space, and I don't personally love zucchinis that much. If you love them, go for it. But be sure the zucchinis get plenty of space in your garden. Cucumbers are typically eaten more raw, and they're tastier raw. And zucchinis, I would say, have more like a heartier taste and would be a little bit bitter raw, but they're very good cooked. In terms of calories, zucchinis and cucumbers are pretty similar. So in 100 grams, you're going to get 17 calories in a zucchini. Whoop, whoop. Not much to write home about, but a cucumber is 15. But if you take off the skin, it's more like 12. Although you don't really want to take off the skin because that's where a lot of the nutrients is for a cucumber. So let's talk about nutrients. So zucchini is notable for being super good source of vitamin C. And it's like 29% of your recommended daily intake is in zucchini. That's pretty crazy. It's also got 10% of your recommended vitamin B6. So zucchini beats out cucumber in terms of vitamin B and vitamin C. But both of these vegetables have pretty good amounts of calcium. And then zucchini still beats cucumbers in terms of potassium and iron and protein and fiber. So in terms of a lot of the nutrients, zucchini honestly is winning. And like I said, the most nutrient dense part of the cucumber is the skin. You want to keep in mind that cucumbers are kind of different. They're more like a watery. They're full of water. So personally, I find that I can eat a lot more cucumbers than I can eat zucchini. I can just stomach them easier because they just taste almost more like a fruit to me. Zucchini is for sure. Now, even though it is technically a fruit, it feels more like a vegetable in the sense that it's not as sweet and watery and not as easy to eat raw. Both vegetables do carry vitamin K, magnesium and potassium. Potassium. Let's see, when you cook them, zucchinis obviously just handle cooking better. So cucumbers are going to wilt pretty easily. But zucchini, when you cook it, I think it gets sweeter, better, more palatable. But cucumbers are going to taste so much better raw. So basically it's you deciding what your values are to decide which plant wins the food fight. If you're talking about space for growing, I personally prefer cucumbers because I can grow them up a trellis. So I could fit a lot more cucumber plants in one space than I could with a zucchini. I've also found more luck with growing cucumbers versus zucchini. I often always end up with squash vine borer when I grow squash and zucchini, and I don't end up with that situation. With cucumbers. If you like raw foods more than cooked foods, then you're going to want to go with the cucumber. But if you're trying to focus on lots, lots of nutrients per bite of what you're growing, then I think zucchini is going to win out. If you want to remove cellulite, help yourself with a hangover and get rid of the bags under your eyes, then I think cucumber is your choice anyway. Just threw that one in there for free. So this is how to stay cool as a cucumber. First of all, you got to prioritize eating locally and eating in season. So now that you know that cucumbers grow in the warm season, you either want to be eating them during that time or when they're not growing in your season locally, then guess what? You could be eating Pickles. So pickles are a great way to enjoy the vegetable that's been grown locally, organically, seasonally, when it's out of season. Just think of those amazing Jewish families, those in Poland and Lithuania, who added pickles to their winter plate. You can do that too and enjoy cucumbers literally year round. But you don't have to be like that Roman guy, Tiberius or whatever his name was. You don't have to be like him where you're growing it, you know, indoors all the time. Although you could do that. But by preserving it or by buying well preserved foods from those who are growing it in season, you could literally be enjoying cucumbers all year round. So eat them seasonally, eat them locally. Prioritize buying from local growers, especially during the season when they're growing. So go check them out at farmer's markets, call your csa. Really prioritize getting cucumbers so that you can get really great tasting cucumbers right off the vine, rather than them having to travel literally miles and miles and days before they reach your plate. Otherwise, you could end up like me and spend $3 on an organic cucumber that you end up putting in the compost pile, which is a total, total disappointment. Then once you prioritize buying them locally, eating them seasonally, you can try to grow some of your own. Like I said in the beginning, from kitchen garden revival, buyer beware. To me, growing in the cucurbet family is one of the most difficult in the kitchen garden simply because there's a lot of pest issues you end up with, with threats of powdery mildew and the squash vine borer. And then you also have pollination going on, which is like an added complication. And these are long season plants, so these are going to grow over 60 to 90 plus days. So there's just more chance of challenges in the garden. Doesn't mean you shouldn't grow them, it just means buyer beware. So I hope you are inspired to grow your own cucumbers, to eat them seasonally, to buy them locally, and to just appreciate. I mean, now you have such a bigger view of what's going on with that pickle, right? There's just a lot to the story. Our food is so surprising in the way it made its way into our lives, into our grocery stores, onto our plates, I think is fascinating. It just opens my eyes every time I do research into these foods to really appreciate the beauty of nature, the wonder of our food growing from seed into something that nourishes our body, takes care of us, and even removes cellulite. I just think it's awesome. And I hope you are amazed in a new way by the simple pleasure of eating a freshly grown and picked cucumber. So what do you call 10 cucumbers in a line? It's a cucumber. You get it? Q. Do you guys say Q you? Yeah, I know. Sorry, I just had to close up with one final pun. So thank you so much for listening to the Grow youw Self podcast. Thank you for staying cool as a cucumber. I hope you do feel cool if you don't slice up some cucumbers, lay them on a bed, and then lay down on top of them. And just like that 17th century doctor said, I'm sure it will make you feel so much better. Stay cool, everybody. Thanks for listening to Grow youw Self. I'll see you next week. Thank you so much for listening to the Grow youw Self podcast. Hey, listen, go leave a review for the podcast if you have not already. Every time you do that, you give social proof to other people that this is pretty cool place to hang out, right? We gotta tell more people about the surprising stories of the food they're eating every day so that we can make a difference not just in our own communities, but literally around the world. Just think if all of us ate one locally sourced meal a week, unique. We could literally change the world for the better together. So your review counts. Please go and leave one and send me a DM when you do on Instagram. I'd love to hear from you. I am gardenaryco on Instagram. If you didn't know. G A R D E N A R Y C O Don't forget, today's episode is brought to you by Gardenary Garden Coaching. What? Yes, that is right. We have Gardenary certified gardening coaching all over the United States. All you got to do is go to gardenary.com coaches, find a coach that you want to set up a session with, register and schedule it right then and there on the platform. And then get ready to get coached. Our garden coaches know how to help you design a gorgeous kitchen garden with raised beds and trellises, just the way you see pictured in all of my stuff and on my book, Kitchen Garden Revival. And we can also help you troubleshoot or make a planting plan for the days coming in your garden. So whatever you need, we can help you grow to the next level. Check it out@gardenary.com Coaches, thanks again for listening to Grow Yourself and I'll see you next time. It all make no.