Why Some Cucumbers are NOT OK to Eat! And Taste Bitter...

Now that's a knife. G'day, I'm Mark from Self Sufficient Me and in this video I'm going to show you guys why some larger cucumbers are not okay to eat. Now this video has been adapted from an article that I wrote on cucumbers on my website selfsufficientme.com and I'm going to present it in the v-blogging style as part of my how-to basic beginner's gardening tips style videos. You can see that playlist, I'll leave a link to it at the end of this video and in the description below. So let's just get into it. Most cucumbers sold in the supermarket are small to medium size even though they can grow much bigger. So why aren't larger sized cucumbers sold more often? Is it because the flavor of the cucumber decreases as the fruit gets bigger? The truth is yes, sometimes older and larger cucumbers can taste awful but this isn't always the case. In fact most cucumbers left to grow to full size taste fine. However there are some important points to take note of with respect to size when growing cucumbers and they are variety. The type of cucumber grown can play a key role in when it should be picked for eating. Some varieties of cucumbers are meant specifically for pickling whole and need to be picked when young or small, typically under 10 centimeters or four inches. Often these pickling cucumbers are extra crispy and dense when small so they make excellent specimens for fermenting and pickling. However if left to grow bigger they become increasingly bitter until practically inedible like the one that I just showed you at the start of this video. A good example is the small white pickling cucumber which is beautiful and novel to grow but tastes awful when left to grow larger than about finger length. Point number two, skin. As a cucumber grows bigger the skin becomes tougher and although this doesn't necessarily affect the taste it can make them less appealing to chew. Depending on the variety as some cucumbers are naturally bigger longer and different in shape than others it's often best to pick them younger rather than left to fully mature. Of course there's the option of removing the skin either fully or partially and just eating the flesh instead. Number three, seeds. Just like the skin as a cucumber matures to full size so does its seed and for some people large cucumber seeds can be unpleasant to eat. Again if seeds are a problem it's a pretty simple process to scoop them out before serving. Number four, flesh. The flesh can get softer and a little drier as a cucumber gets larger although this is not usually as big of an issue as some other kerkovits such as squash for example can become rather grainy as they go oversized. Nevertheless most varieties of cucumber will hold flesh structure well enough to be pleasant to eat even when fully matured. So supermarkets and grocers stock younger smaller cucumbers mainly for the reasons above and because the smaller fruit lasts longer on the shelf and transport better. For the backyard grower like myself I would recommend trying as many different types of cucumbers as you can including the pick small only varieties even if they do taste horrible when slightly bigger than a USB stick. I have written a more in-depth article on cucumber growing and the different varieties on my website links are below and you might be interested in my how to grow a ton of cucumbers video which includes fermenting them to make a healthy pickle. Commercially grown varieties are limited for commercial reasons and that's the beauty of growing your own, no rules. Having said that it does make sense to grow varieties that don't become bitter as they mature particularly if you are not going to pickle them. At the end of the day any type of cucumber can be effectively pickled when picked small anyway therefore for most urban farmers it's prudent to grow varieties that can be pickled when small and still be good to eat when big even if the larger variety cucumber plant doesn't produce as many fruits. One final word of advice and if you do use big mature homegrown cucumbers be sure to always taste a little piece before serving it in your chopped salad to the extended family or at a dinner party because it could be rather embarrassing if it has turned awful and bitter. Now don't worry this cucumber here is not going to get wasted these seeds have matured and I'll be collecting the seeds fermenting them in a little glass of water so that it gets rid of any disease and it also gets the outer membrane off the seed that way I can store them when dry and plant them out next season. Well I hope you enjoyed this video if you did give it a big thumbs up and don't forget to subscribe if you've just got here from googling or found me on YouTube randomly. Subscribe to the channel share the video around because that helps a lot. Support me on Patreon if you'd like to that'd be fantastic. Thanks a lot for watching guys bye for now. Oh do I dare have another taste I don't think so the kookaburra this is Australia you finished gosh it gets noisy around here sometimes