18 July 2008

This week's mistakes

I discovered on Wednesday that the Riesentraube tomatoes I'd been thinking were a bush-type plant, were not, and that I should have been taking out the side shoots all this time. So I spent a good hour this afternoon thinning them back to their main stems - discovering a chilli plant and an eggplant that had been taken over by them in the meantime. The tomato plants look a lot better now - they were getting terribly congested before and I was worried that they'd be susceptible to blight.

The two Parisian Pickling plants still seemed to be only sporting immature cucumbers. Then I noticed that they had somehow produced fruit underneath the layer of mulch. So instead of the mini gherkins/cornichons I was expecting I had three monster cucumbers (the zucchini (Striata d'Italia) on the left are five inches long):

I'll be watching them much more closely from now on. Anyone got a good recipe for using up overgrown gherkins?

8 comments:

chey said...

That's funny:). Can you eat them in a salad?

Nancy said...

Bread and Butter pickles are usually made from slices. You might try a refrigerator pickle too.

Amy said...

Woah, you're not kidding about monster size! Have you ever tried cucumber salad? It's just thinly sliced cucumber with some sort of vinegar concoction mixed in. Sorry, I don't know a recipe, but my family used to make it and I loved it. Or maybe a Greek salad with cucumber, tomatoes, olives and feta cheese?

Eve said...

Actually I do. You can slice them, dip them in batter and fry them.
I overlook things all the time in my garden. They hide from me. LOL

Amanda said...

Thanks for all the suggestions - I'm sure I will be trying every single one before the summer is over! I've made this batch into refrigerator pickles, following a recipe posted by Daphne over on her blog.

Miya said...

This happened to me too! I swear I just missed picking them for a day, but then again maybe the fact that the previous two days I was picking by flashlight because of working late means that's not the most successful way to go about it... And mine have big bad spines. I was going to try to pickle them the same as my actual cornichon-sized cornichon (i.e. just throw them in the fridge in some vinegar, garlic, thyme, black pepper) but sliced. We'll see!

Nicki said...

I am posting this comment several years after you wrote about the cucumbers as I just found this blog (which I am now reading in chronological order (not sure about that spelling!). Here is one of my favorite cucumber salads. Take a big spoonful of sour cream, add a little lemon juice and a little sugar. If you like them, add a little chopped green peppers and chopped onion. Add any herbs you like. Stir. Slice cucumbers very thinly and stir into the sour cream sauce and chill about an hour before serving. I have never made this salad the same way twice - sometimes I have more peppers and onion; sometimes I have none. The salad does get watery after a day or two so don't make more than you can eat in one or two meals.

Amanda said...

Thanks Nicki!