Cucumber

CUCUMBERS IN HISTORY

Cucumbers were known to ancient Egyptians, who had a drink made from fermented cucumber.

Cucumbers are mentioned twice in the Bible, in Numbers 11:5 and Isaiah 1:8.

Pythagoras favoured a cucumber salad with raisin-coriander vinaigrette.

The Roman Emperor Tiberius grew cucumbers in carts; he got his slaves to wheel them around to catch the sun.

Ruralia Commoda, a  manual written in Latin between 1304 and 1309 suggested that cucumbers shake with fear at the sound of thunder,

In 1775 Dr Samuel Johnson published his Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland, which recorded his visit with his friend James Boswell to Scotland. A lover of good food, he claimed whilst in the Hebrides, "A cucumber should be well sliced and dressed with pepper & vinegar & then thrown out, as good for nothing."

The famous railway pioneer George Stephenson once invented a cucumber straightener, a transparent glass tube open at one end in which a half grown cucumber was placed and as it continued to grow it straightend.

General Ulysses S. Grant was extremely fond of cucumbers and he frequently dined on just a sliced cucumber and a cup of coffee.

FUN CUCUMBER FACTS

In 1998, S Ramesh Babu set a record by slicing a cucumber into 120,060 pieces in 2 hours, 52 minutes, 21 seconds.

The longest cucumber measured  47 inches and was grown by Clare Pearce and measured in Peterborough, England, in August 2010.

The heaviest ever cucumber weighed 12.9 kg (23 lb 7 oz) and was grown by British gardener David Thomas and weighed at the Malvern Autumn Show, Three Counties Showground, Malvern, Worcestershire, United Kingdom on September 26, 2015.

Giant cucumbers can be used for a variety of purposes. They can be sliced and eaten fresh, or they can be pickled or canned. They can also be used in salads and other dishes. However, many people simply enjoy growing giant cucumbers for the challenge and the satisfaction of producing such a large and unusual vegetable.

Cucumbers are about 95 per cent water. The skin is their most nutritious part.

'Cucumiform’ means ‘shaped like a cucumber’.

As cool as a cucumber” is an apt simile: The inside of a cucumber can be as much as 11C (20F) cooler than the outside temperature.

Supposedly rubbing a cucumber on your bathroom mirror will prevent it from getting foggy.

Sticking a cucumber to the roof of your mouth for thirty seconds can help get rid of bad breath.

Sources Daily Express, Food For Thought by Ed Pearce