Smashed Cucumber Salad

Recipe: Smashed Cucumber Salad

I’ve been making my own adapted version of the smashed cucumber salad recipe from Silvena Rowe’s, Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume: Cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean for the last few years, but I’ve never had the chance to pair a few of the key ingredients: cucumber and mulberry. Their seasons just haven’t overlapped well. However,

Mexican Sour Gherkin

Food Worth Growing: Mexican Sour Gherkin

Barbie Doll Watermelons, that’s what I call them, because, well… that’s what they look like. Their real name is Mexican Sour Gherkin (Melothria scabra), but they also popularly go by mouse melon, cucamelon, and sandíita (meaning little melon in Spanish).

Giant Cucumber

Attack of the Colossal Cucumber

In the “How to Harvest” chapter of my book, Grow Great Grub, I explain why it is important to pick certain veggies such as zucchini, beans, and… ahem… cucumbers when they are young and immature. Whoops. I try to stay on top of rogue fruit by checking all around leafy plants, but alas, occasionally one

Squash and Cucumber Flowers

Diversity is Beautiful (and Other Tangents to See You Into the Weekend)

I’ve been thinking a lot about diversity in the garden. As I wander around, observing everything that is growing, the beautiful diversity within each family and genus, and even within the same plant amazes me. I don’t have anything super profound to say about this right now, it’s just something that I am appreciating in

A range of open-pollinated garden squashes and zucchini

Cucurbits From My Garden

Over the last few years I haven’t been growing enough cucurbits (namely squashes and cucumbers) to meet our eating demands, so last winter I resolved to dedicate more garden space to a range of types in the 2013 growing season. This meant cutting back a bit on my beloved tomatoes, but alas… While I was

The Annual, Let’s Buy Even More Italian Edibles Seed

It’s become a tradition and now that I live in an Italian neighbourhood it’s pretty much a requirement. When my local Italian greengrocer set out the seed rack I did a little happy dance, and it was then that I knew I was doomed to buy more seed than I will ever have room to

Italian Edibles

I have begun to purchase seeds for the 2011 growing season, and because I now live in an Italian neighbourhood, I have easy access to Italian edibles. The above photo represents my first, in-store (as opposed to online), impulse seed purchase of the year. Most of the seeds I bought were varieties of radicchio (Cichorium

Seedy Saturday Haul 2009

Well, another Seedy Saturday has come and gone. And really, I could just cut and paste last year’s post, or the one before that, or the one before that, because frankly, it’s pretty much the same for me every year. I start out with good intentions. But it’s busy from the moment I arrive and

Remembering Summer

‘Miniature White’ Cucumber grown on my rooftop. ‘Redbor’ Kale photographed at a community garden in Hamilton, ON.

Mexican Sour Gherkin

Adorably teeny tiny Mexican Sour Gherkins (Melothria scabra) are starting to pop up all over the vines I’ve got growing at my community garden plot. The fruit in the picture is about half and inch or so and should be approximately 1-2″ when fully ripe however I am extremely impatient and picked a few for