Amanda Miller
Columnist
Lettuce Eat Local
I’ve checked back through my recent articles several times now, scrolling through both my file folder and the online archive. I’m looking for something I’m sure must be there but that I have no actual memory of, perhaps because it doesn’t exist — where are the cucumbers?? Have I seriously gone all summer without writing about cucumbers?
Because while you will find them as conspicuously absent from my garden as from my recent column history, they have blessedly not been absent from our summer life. I do this thing where I may or may not plant cucumber hills, and am not too worried about them either, since I’m certain someone else will grow way too many and give them to me. It might be selfish to rely on others’ generosity, but I’ll be honest, it also tends to be extremely effective.
It’s playing vegetable roulette even more dangerously than any normal Kansas gardening always is. Some years I pay the price of my cucumber leniency and it’s a sad, crunch-less and burpless season for us; and then some years it’s like this one, when cucumbers have been our constant companion.
We’ve snagged them from the box of “take me” that was brought to the foyer at church, we’ve picked them from traveling friends’ gardens (with permission), we’ve always answered affirmatively when asked if we want some, and we’ve even had them magically appear on the table while we were out. Someone mentioned to me recently that this is the season of needing to lock your car and house doors so people don’t deposit extra garden produce in them, and I responded with, “Oh no, this is the season to fling the doors wide open!” At some point, you can probably reach the level of Too Many Cucumbers, but that’s a hard-won place to get to.
And while some of my in-laws can’t even stand the smell of cucumbers — they shall remain unnamed, bless their hearts — Brian will eat them in things and even sometimes by themselves. I always enjoy a good cucumber salad, whether it’s creamy or vinegary or herby or gingery or anything, but a lot of the cukes this year have been so wonderful I don’t even want to salad them. The kids and I just walk around chomping on them like little weirdos.
Is Kiah fussy? Give her a cucumber, the perfect cold and crunchy teether that is its own handle. Headed out for “town chores”? Toss a few cucumbers in the backpack for later. Are we going for a walk? Grab a cucumber for each of us and go find the stroller. Ready for storytime? Here kids, have a cucumber to munch while I read. I’ve packed them along to all our Sunflower Summer adventures, used them in catering and classes, brought them as snack to our book study, and this week even took them on the airplane for Kiah and me on our way to Alabama.
Safe to say, they’ve been around with us. I keep thinking the season has got to be over by now, and soon, it really will be — maybe it is even now, and I’ve already chomped on my last one. But we’ve sure had a good run of it this summer, thanks to the generosity of neighbors, and who knows, maybe I’ll even plant a few of my own next year.
Cucumbers with “Cucumber Stuff”
Great title, huh? That’s what I have to call it though because that’s what this is, at least according to Benson. I don’t know why I had the idea to sprinkle nutritional yeast on sliced cukes one time, but it was so good, it’s become a thing for us. It’s clearly stretching it to call this a recipe, but we think it’s a lovely method for enjoying cucumbers that are so good you barely want to do anything to them. Benson likes to help arrange the slices and sprinkle the spices, so it’s fun to get him involved (mostly fun, until I get a super-salty piece; we’re still working on even distribution).
Prep tips: you do want to use coarse salt for this, as fine table salt is easier to get too salty and lacks that little crunch that we want. Even if you’ve never heard of it, most groceries carry nutritional yeast.
sliced, chilled cucumbers
coarse/kosher salt
nutritional yeast
white pepper
optional red pepper flakes
Arrange the cucumbers in a single layer on a plate or tray. Sprinkle with salt, followed by a good dose of nutritional yeast, a light dusting of white pepper, and red pepper to taste (if using at all). Taste and adjust as necessary.
