Using My First Marketmore Cucumber

The garden is starting to produce nicely!  Like many home gardeners I await rather impatiently for the garden beds to start producing.  Patience is not my strong suit so it has been sorely tested this year with the 2 largest beds planted late followed by the 2 newest beds planted even later.  While most of the planting was within the range of local farmer's planting their crops I missed out on the cold weather crops.  I didn't plant those because I knew we would be away for a couple of weeks checking out our vacation home. So the garden is now producing :)

I picked a marketmore cucumber last week and it sure was a beauty coming in at just over 9½- inches.  The diameter was a little over 2 - inches.  This is a thick, straight cucumber that matures in about 60 days.  The vine is laden with cucumbers so I can see a lot of fresh eating as well as a batch or two of sweet relish in the future.

Part of the satisfaction of growing your own fruits and vegetables aside from knowing they were grown organically is freshness.  When the garden is producing I quite often make a mental note of what is ready for picking during my morning garden check.  Then I try to work that produce into that evening's meal, picking moments before prep is needed.  That way I get the freshest possible produce.  I also note any produce that is in excess for preserving picking for freshest possible.

This is my first year growing marketmore cucumber but rest assured it will not be my last.  I will definitely be saving a few seeds from this excellent performer!  The cucumber was nice and straight with good diameter.  I sliced it in half them peeled and sliced into beautiful, fresh smelling slices.  I repeated with the other half.  The cucumber taste and aroma was just delightful!

The marketmore cucumber is ideal for slicing and fresh eating.  It also lends itself well for making quick summer refrigerator pickles.  If you are interested in growing marketmore you won't be disappointed.  It is a very good performer free of most cucumber plant problems.

Summer meals need to be a bit lighter especially in calories simply because our bodies don't need all the heavy calories for the cold winter months.  Our summer meals tend to reflect that usually with more of an emphasis on raw foods.  We've had a period of several hot, humid days with rather nasty thunderstorms late afternoon through the evening, not really ideal grilling weather.  I took advantage of a break in the hot, humid weather to make sweet & sour chicken wings with Basmati rice for dinner.  Rather than have a full side salad I used cucumber slices instead.  This was a nice, simple, light meal accented by the cucumber slices.