Sunday, August 29, 2010

Cucumber Juice Anyone?

I haven't really mentioned our experimental garden this year.  When we moved to the country (3 summers ago!) we had big plans for an enormous garden.  Then I started knitting, and that was the end of that!  Last year was a big bust.  This year we decided for something more managable.  It is a small plot about 4 feet by 8 feet and has 4 cucumber plants, 6 pepper plants and 12 tomato plants (all purchased as small plants).















Here it is at the end of June, doesn't it look sweet?  So tiny and unassuming.  We put down the garden paper before we went away, hoping it would keep the weeds away.  It has done a great job with that, I highly recommend using it too keep a small garden low maintenance.

Everything is much bigger nowadays, we also put up a temporary fence to keep out the deer.  Very necessary in our neighbourhood!

We have been getting cucumbers for weeks now, huge ones, tiny ones, lots and lots of cucumbers.  Earlier this week we had a pile of about 8 cucumbers, just waiting to become something.  We've already given plenty away, and I've already made more than enough pickles for the year too.  What could we do with those cucumbers?

In desperation we got out the juicer and made cucumber juice.  I figure that we can use it in our milkshakes as an extra fruit during the many months when fresh fruit isn't available.  Our juicer takes out the pulp, seeds and skin and just feeds out the juice, it is very easy to use.  Here are some photos of the process:
















































We froze the juice in smallish servings that can easily be added to the blender (we used popcicle forms in this case).  They should store in a freezer bag for quite a while.

While we were at it, we juiced a watermelon too.  A small watermelon made over 4 cups of juice.













































The watermelon juice looked and tasted great, the cucumber, not so much.  We froze most of the watermelon juice too.

What do you do with extra cucumbers?

1 comment:

  1. I like cucumber salad, big time. Sliced very thin with thin slices of onions, vinegar, a bit of olive oil, kosher salt and oregano. Set in the fridge for a few hours, then eat. Mmmm...

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