Cucumbers are like Life

We grow cucumbers. Alongside other crops, they sit in our garden growing happily in the sun, taking up water and minerals through their roots and using photosynthesis to convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into chemical energy to drive their growth and keep themselves alive. It's a wonderful process most of us leave behind at 16 with GCSE Science and never have to return to.

Cultivation

Any gardener will tell you it's more difficult than that. Plants are, like children, pets and HMRC, surprisingly difficult to keep happy.

Cucumbers especially are a funny plant. We've managed over centuries to breed a plant that is bitter and hard to eat in the stalks and leaves, but fresh and succulent in the fruit. They need huge amounts of water and they are ravenous for nutrients in the soil.

Our early cucumbers this year were marvellous - watery and smooth and surprisingly full of flavour. Our later cucumbers were a disaster.

Nutrition and Hydration

Cucumbers need all that water on a regular basis. If they get stressed in dry spells, or run out of nutrients, they become unhappy, and the bitter chemical that makes their leaves so unattractive to eat can find its way into the cucumbers themselves. What should be a light and hydrating snack suddenly has a tougher bitter rind that leaves a vile aftertaste.

It's a bit like life. If we're stressed, underfed on the good things that make us happy and balanced, we too can become a bit tough and bitter on the outside. Inside we're still perfectly formed, but nobody can see that or taste it because of the aftertaste our outer self offers...

So today I am preparing for a weekend of being good, drinking enough water, getting ready for a Bank Holiday break next weekend, and trying to make sure I stay cool as a cucumber. A well-watered, properly maintained cucumber.

Happy Friday.