Cucumber
by Gudrun Maybaum
Spring 2003
Common name: Cucumbers
Botanical name: Cucumis sativa
Family name: N.O. Cucurbitaceae
History
Cucumbers are believed to have originated in India, have been cultivated since about 8,000 B.C. and are one of the oldest cultivated vegetables on earth. From India they spread to western Asia, China, Egypt, Greece and today’s Italy.
There is a passage in the Bible where the Israelites, during their trip through the wilderness, complain to Moses about such things as cucumbers and melons that they miss from Egypt. The Romans probably brought them from Egypt to Rome and from there all over Europe. They were very fond of them. One of their emperors, Tiberius, had them grown in such ways that he could eat them on a daily basis.
Records of the cultivation of cucumbers are found in France in the 9th century, in England in the 14th century and by the middle of the 16th century in North America. Supposedly, Columbus brought seeds to the Americas, so when the first settlers came to Virginia in 1584, they found cucumbers in Native American gardens.
In many countries, cucumbers have been a daily staple for thousands of years. In North America, they became one of the most popular planted crops in home gardens. Why would a vegetable that is less tasty than many others, consists of 95% water and supposedly has little nutritional value be so popular?
Cucumbers make a lot of sense for hot climates, because they are one of the most cooling foods there are. But let's have a look at the nutritional value.
NutritionFirst, we are learning more every day about important nutrients whose name we didn't even know yesterday. So there must be some benefit to a vegetable that has been cultivated and eaten for 10,000 years. Besides any nutrition contained in cucumbers, it is said that they enhance the nutritional value of other foods with which they are eaten.
They contain vitamin E and some vitamin C, B1 and A. Cucumbers are also a valuable source of sodium, potassium, magnesium, sulfur, silicon, chlorine and fluorine. They support bowel action and, eaten in larger amounts, they work as a mild laxative and help with constipation.
Healing Cucumbers even have some medicinal value, primarily as an aid to flushing the kidneys and bladder. Thus, they also help with fluid retention, arthritis, gout, bladder infections and cystitis. Cucumber seeds have been used to dissolve gravel in the urinary tract.
Both the seeds and the juice of the cucumber reduce hyperacidity. In Chinese medicine cucumbers are used to reduce inflammations of different kinds. In the west, they are more often used for some skin conditions like eczema and eye problems because of their cooling and cleansing properties. There are also some sterols in cucumbers that lower cholesterol.
Though cucumbers are subtropical plants, which like long warm days and rather mild nights, they have a short enough growing period that it is possible to raise them almost everywhere. They can be grown in many types of soil. The plants can be started indoors and transferred outside as soon as the danger of frost is over.
Cucumbers are spacious plants and need to be planted 2-3 feet apart, with rows spaced 5-6 feet apart. Some radish seeds sown between the plants keep cucumber beetles away. Raccoons don’t seem to like cucumbers, so it would be a good idea to plant them close to corn as cucumbers keep raccoons from corn and corn protects cucumbers against the virus that causes wilt. Depending on the type of cucumber planted, it takes between 50 and 70 days until they are ready for harvest.
References:
Medical Value of Natural Foods, Graves,W.H. M.D.
The Good Food Book
Carrots Love Tomatoes, Luise Riotte
Online:
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~bcohen/cucumbers/info.html
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1608.html
http://www.valuerecipes.com/index.php/article/articleview/91/1/21/
http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/c/cucum123.html