Posted on 06/14/2024 6:36:52 AM PDT by Red Badger
NATIONAL CUCUMBER DAY
Today is June 14 and National Cucumber Day at National Day Calendar and we are enjoying fresh cucumbers all day long! Join us as we crunch on this crisp summer favorite and enjoy the fruits of summer.
#NATIONALCUCUMBERDAY
You can almost taste the crisp, watery goodness of a cucumber during the summer months. With fresh fruits and vegetables at our fingertips, we feel very little guilt indulging in this salad favorite. Whether we grow them in our garden or purchase them at a local farmers market, we love the freshness a cucumber adds to our diets.
Most people think cucumbers are a vegetable. In fact, they are actually a fruit in the watermelon family Cucurbitaceae. Cucumbers are normally a long and have a cylindrical shape, and are grown in different sizes. There are also around 100 different types of cucumbers around the world.
Most cucumbers have green flesh with a white inside. The Lemon Cucumber has yellow skin and a tart taste. However, the Albino cucumber is a rare heirloom cucumber grown by seed savers. A seed saver is someone who saves seeds year-to-year and prevents cross-pollination with another seed variety.
Crunchy History
Cucumbers have been cultivated for nearly 3,000 years originating in Asia. It is unclear how or when cultivation was introduced to Ancient Greek and Roman Empires, but records show both upper and lower class people of those times were cultivating cucumbers as part of their diet. Europeans would bring cucumbers to the U.S. some time during exploration. Benjamin Watson's Heirloom Vegetables book stated "in 1539 DeSoto found Indians in Florida growing cucumbers that were "better than those of Spain.""
How do you eat cucumbers? Cucumbers are a common salad food. However, cucumbers are a main ingredient in the puree of gazpacho soup. In addition, tea houses in Britain serve cucumber sandwiches with tea because its lightness pairs well with afternoon tea.
Though most people slice cucumbers and eat them in salads, many people use them for pickling. Pickling possibly dates back as far as the Mesopotamians who would preserve cucumbers in a brine solution. Today, Americans consumer almost 10 pounds of pickles per person in one year! Unsurprisingly, Kosher dill pickles have been a favorite among households since the 19th century thanks to Eastern European Jews emigrating to the U.S.
7 Cucumber Facts
Placing sliced cucumber on your tongue for a few minutes will eliminate bad breath.
Cucumbers reduce and ease face swelling, especially around the eye area.
Boiling sliced cucumbers releases a natural stress reducer into the air.
Cucumbers are 95% water, which make them a great substitute for hydration.
The waxy coating of a cucumber will erase a pen on anything.
Eating cucumbers before bed after a night of too many adult beverages will help your body recover from a hangover the next day.
Pureeing cucumber and applying it to a sunburn provides instant relief.
A NATIONAL CUCUMBER DAY CELEBRATION
Visit a local farmer to learn about growing cucumbers.
Add cucumbers to your salad or eat them alone.
Learn about the health benefits of cucumbers.
Share your cucumber recipes on social media and tag #NationalCucumberDay.
CREATOR OF NATIONAL CUCUMBER DAY
National Day Calendar created National Cucumber Day in 2023 to celebrate the refreshing taste of cucumbers all day long! We want everyone to enjoy the little things in life and today's National Day is delicious celebration honoring another food holiday.
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CUKE DAY!..................
Cukes with onions and sour cream...a summertime favorite. I’ve been buying the long cucumbers and really like them.
Those Long English cukes? They are bitter-tasting to me...........
Think I’ll make macaroni and shrimp salad..with cukes and green onions.
I picked cukes one summer as a kid in ‘68.
75 cents a bushel, and they wanted the small ones gherkin sized pickling cukes.
It takes a zillion to fill a bushels basket........................
Love them.
Sliced cukes are added to water glasses around here along with lemon.
I like them with salt and mild vinegar, old family recipe.
My cucumber is bigger than yours!
Toasted cucumber sa dwhich- can’t wait. Toast, mayo, sa,t and plenty of pepper- (also can’t wait for toasted tomatoes sandwiches made the same way! Hurry up garden... 😆)
Good way to lose weight...................
Know what you mean,...I picked raspberries...hot, prickly and that’s where bees like to live. When I had picked $5 worth...I bought a chicken, an onion, some carrots and macaroni...and ate for a week.
The only thing I was worried about was snakes among the vines....................
I love cucumber slices in salads. I LOVE garlic pickles! My wife make cucumber water in a big sun tea jar by putting cucumber slices in water and refrigerating.
bkmk
I slice up the cucumbers, and put Kraft Cucumber Ranch dressing on them. It taste great, and it’s so simple. Kraft Cucumber Ranch dressing is hard to find though.
Ladies love cucumbers.
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