Well, our cucumbers have been doing well again this year, though a little later that usual (it HAS been a strange season!), and we made our first 2021 batch of Relish at the end of August.
Frustratingly, it needs to mature for at least a month, so we have not been able to sell any (or eat any ourselves) until just a few days ago, but now the first batch is ready.
Don't worry, we have gone on making more batches right through September, so we don't expect to sell out just yet! So far, we have produced 70 jars and the cucumbers are still flourishing in the polytunnel.
The Back Story . . .
In 2015, we tried growing cucumbers a little more seriously, trying to find a variety we really liked and which grew well for us. We had grown them before, of course, but there were lots of different varieties. We had grown 'Burpless Tasty Green' with some success, but we were beginning to move away from F1 varieties and tried a few others as well.
And then we had a problem! We had so many cucumbers that we couldn't sell them all – or eat them ourselves! We needed a recipe to 'do something' with cucumbers, and found it in 'Preserving' by Emma Macdonald, a book that was already sitting on our kitchen bookshelf.
We made the relish and liked it, so we tried it on our customers – and they liked it, too!
So, now we have a different 'problem' – not really a problem at all. The relish is so popular that we need to make sure to grow LOTS of cucumbers every year! We seem to grow more each year, and still the relish sells out before the next batch is ready.
And the cucumber variety we finally settled on? 'Tamra' , a short and sweet cucumber, not bitter like so many can be. Very popular with our customers – and it makes excellent relish!
'Tamra' is available from The Real Seed Company, along with many other non-hybrid seeds. As this is a true variety and not a hybrid, we can save our own seed, and have been doing so for a few years.
No comments:
Post a Comment