Day 193

Saturday is harvest day for my vegetable garden T-Th-Sat are harvest and prune days, M-W-F-Sun are watering days. I have a list spreadsheet to prove it. So,  I happily took my basket and scissors out towards the back of the yard, anxious to see what progress my babies had made over the last day or two.

The butternut squash are coming along nicely, and I was rewarded with both a yellow summer squash and a zucchini. I have two baby watermelons growing on their long, delicate vines, and there was both a jalapeno and green bell pepper ripe for picking.

Then I got to the cucumber plant.

Last year, I had planted a cucumber plant but only one baby cuke had grown. I think this was mostly because I had unknowingly planted it in a bad spot, buried behind tomato plants that blocked off the sun.

But this year, I am in cucumber heaven. I picked 4 large ones, to add to the two I already had in the fridge. I have decided I am going to try my hand at homemade pickles, and had bought both a pickle seasoning mix and the book Canning For Dummies last weekend.

Cucumbers grow on vines, and instead of having them grow out into the yard, I have trained them up a tomato cage. They seem to like hanging from the air, almost seeming to stretch longer and longer on a daily basis.

Now, if you were to go to the grocery store to buy a cucumber, chances are it would be rather straight. They line them all up on top of each other at the grocery I go to. Mine from the garden are all pretty straight as well-except for one.

My cucumbers hang from their vine like green icicles, and this particular one got big enough that it met the earth before it was done growing. So instead of stunting itself, it just changed it's direction of growth, therefore turning into a slightly curved product.

My husband was heading to a friends house, and I picked up the freshly picked cucumber and asked him to take it to his friend's wife for me as a gift.

There was an awkward silence as he looked from the cucumber- to me- to the cucumber- and back to me.

"Are you being serious?" he asked. I nodded my affirmation.

"I can't take something like that over there and hand it to my friend's wife!"

Confused, I said, "It's a cucumber!". Then I looked down at the emerald beauty, still glistening from being washed in the sink.

Now I understood. The cucumber's smart self-preservation mode of bending had turned it from an ordinary garden vegetable into an impressive phallic symbol (I mean, it was a good 8 inches long and at least 2 inches in diameter...).

"Oh...ok. I'll wait till I make the pickles and then give her some of those".

"Thank you", he said, with a hint of relief in his voice.

Today's picture represents success in the garden, and our brain's ability to turn a simple object into something else entirely. The good news is, those cucumbers should make nice big slices of pickles that will fit well on a hamburger!