Cucumbers of the gods

Two weeks ago we had the second cucumber of the season. The first had to be fed unwillingly to our "pet" groundhog" to go with the lettuce that he ate.

Before washing and having the spikes removed

A glamour shot with drops of water just like in a supermarket ad.

These little bush cucumbers don't get too big but they are very tasty. I still fear to grow them or any variety because I haven't figured out when to pick to avoid overripe, bitter cucumbers.

Are there any cucumber aficionados who would care top comment in what to plant and when to pick?

First Cucumbers of the season, tomatoes soon!

Last week afforded the first ripe and ready cucumber of the season. We like them best in a cucumber salad that is merely vinegar, sugar and cucumbers.

Pre-picking

Post-picking

One of the grape tomatoes is almost red enough to pick, soon there will be many. Other notable tomato varieties this year are (from left to right above): Rutgers (a big slicing tomato), the Grape tomatoes I already mentioned, San Marzano (a plum, saucing tomato) and Yellow Pear (a small bite size variety). We threw down some ground up left over egg shells for calcium to prevent blossom end rot, but this year it is the irregular rain that is killing us and giving some of the tomatoes dreaded blossom end rot.