Today's haul
This is what I picked today. 
From left to right - 4 from Straight Eight, 2 from Marketmore, 2 from Early Fortune and 2 from Bushy.
I'm not going to keep a record of all of the cucumbers from here on, just make notes of trends.
Bushy grew well and fast, started bearing early, and made nice big tasty cukes, but it doesn't seem to tolerate the heat well. It has great big leaves, and they are the first to droop when it hasn't rained for a couple of days. So next year plant if I want cukes early, maybe?
Early Fortune has not made as big of a plant, but bears consistently just not very many at a time.
So far, Marketmore has the biggest cukes, quite a few of them, and they are nice and smooth, which makes them easier to peel.
Straight Eight seems to be just getting started. Bears watching.
Burpee's Burpless and Spacemaster were planted late, so it is understandable that they are lagging behind.
Last Monday, while at Anna's, I peeled and cut cukes and made sticks for cinnamon pickles. Anna helped peel once the kids were settled in bed.
Even though I had weighed the cucumbers with my kitchen scales, and had 11 pounds for a recipe that calls for 10, I did not get enough sticks. The recipe says you should have 8 quarts of sticks. We had about 6 quarts. So when I got home, I picked 2 more big cukes (by flashlight! But my neighbors know I'm a little crazy after living across from me for 29 years), cut them and added the sticks. Still not 8 quarts, but I've learned that pickling is not an exact science.
I've followed the required steps each day to process the pickles, and today I need to put them in jars. There may be pictures layer. :)
From left to right - 4 from Straight Eight, 2 from Marketmore, 2 from Early Fortune and 2 from Bushy.
I'm not going to keep a record of all of the cucumbers from here on, just make notes of trends.
Bushy grew well and fast, started bearing early, and made nice big tasty cukes, but it doesn't seem to tolerate the heat well. It has great big leaves, and they are the first to droop when it hasn't rained for a couple of days. So next year plant if I want cukes early, maybe?
Early Fortune has not made as big of a plant, but bears consistently just not very many at a time.
So far, Marketmore has the biggest cukes, quite a few of them, and they are nice and smooth, which makes them easier to peel.
Straight Eight seems to be just getting started. Bears watching.
Burpee's Burpless and Spacemaster were planted late, so it is understandable that they are lagging behind.
Last Monday, while at Anna's, I peeled and cut cukes and made sticks for cinnamon pickles. Anna helped peel once the kids were settled in bed.
Even though I had weighed the cucumbers with my kitchen scales, and had 11 pounds for a recipe that calls for 10, I did not get enough sticks. The recipe says you should have 8 quarts of sticks. We had about 6 quarts. So when I got home, I picked 2 more big cukes (by flashlight! But my neighbors know I'm a little crazy after living across from me for 29 years), cut them and added the sticks. Still not 8 quarts, but I've learned that pickling is not an exact science.
I've followed the required steps each day to process the pickles, and today I need to put them in jars. There may be pictures layer. :)