We are at the start of November and I am holding onto harvest mode. It is mainly my chilli plants that are still producing. Soaking up the last of the autumn sun. The cucumbers are long gone, but the memory of picking them and eating them fresh sustains. There is generally only one type of cucumber you can buy from a shop; the standard supermarket, shrink wrapped variety. It must have had a Latin name once - cucumis sativus … - but who knows what that was, bred to last and with a bland watery taste it is hardly something to get excited about.
If you live in a Turkish populated community like we do, then you might be lucky enough to get a few other varieties - I love the small sweet ones, but if you want to really taste something different you have to grow it. This year I grew Cucumis sativus ‘Crystal Lemon’ and ‘Tanja’ along with another variety of Cypress cucumber gifted by a friend. There wasn’t much space for them as I was focussing on my flowers, but they soon started to clamber up the walls and dangle like baubles on a strings. Fresh from the vine they were heavenly and I pickled a load of them to preserve the delight in eating them but the pickle didn’t last long - my recipe follows here:
Harris Greenhouse Pickle
Ingredients:
1 no. 850ml Weck Jar
6 no. Assorted home grown cucumbers
100g sugar
400ml white wine vinegar
200ml water
20g salt
1 shallot
1tsp of mustard seed
1tsp of all spice berries
1 chilli
1tsp of tumeric
Method:
Dissolve the sugar and salt in the water and vinegar by bringing the liquid slowly to boil. Add the spices. Meanwhile slice the cucumbers, chilli and shallot into thin discs. Let the liquid cool and then add to vegetables.
Meanwhile back in the greenhouse things are slowing down. The tomatoes are still flowering and the smell is devine, but there is not much sign of further fruit. It may, though I am reluctant to say, be time to say good bye to growing for this year.
