Given the appearance of the Barattiere, it is more easy to imagine that it is a regular melon than it being a carosello-type fruit. It doesn’t look like many of the other carosello varieties, and likely doesn’t directly descend from the same line of immature melons as the carosello do.                     & ..read more

I received seeds of a parthenocarpic cucumber variety from the Seed Saver’s Exchange collection by the name of Conqueror. It was supposed to be an English variety that was parthenocarpic. English cucumber varieties are prized for being good to grow in greenhouses and parthenocarpic varieties would be ideal in those conditions because the vines produce fruit without pollination.  &nbsp ..read more

A friend of mine, Mike Wilkinson, referred me to a grower named Nick at a local Organic Olive Orchard in Suisun Valley in the Fairfield area. He made room for me to grow some cucumbers in the spring of 2023. The area is incredibly fertile and beautiful. He made a row of land available for me to grow on.                   &nbsp ..read more

What shall I say about the Minuncedda di Sternatia? First, I must mention something about the name. The majority of the names of various melons picked immature as cucumbers in Italy are given names according to this pattern: 1. Fruit name in the local dialect 2. From 3. Location. Thus “Minuncedda” is the name given to this cucumber-melon and “di Sternatia” means “from Sternatia”. Second ..read more

At one of the sites where I garden, they have a keyhole garden where I used to grow. Now it is primarily populated by wild flowers. Enjoy the pictures.           &nbsp ..read more

When I was growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, I would see tree frogs all the time. Now, it is a very rare opportunity when I see one. I wanted to share my rare sighting of a Pacific Tree frog in Antioch, California.    &nbsp ..read more

In late July I started a planting of Tondo Manduria from some seed my friend Angelo provided me with in 2013. It is amazing how well his seed has germinated all these years later. In any case, my desire to get the fruit to seed was pretty futile, due to the prevalence of Powdery Mildew. By the time I got around to the plot, the disease had established itself so firmly, that there was little I ..read more

For some reason, I tend to grow a lot of cucumber varieties with long names. The Vorgebirgstrauben, or ‘Vorge’ for short is no exception. I really enjoyed this unique German pickling cucumber.   I really like when a cucumber variety like 'Vorge' has defining characteristics that set them apart form other cultivars. With conspicuous black spines and stubby dimpled fruit that is darker on ..read more

For me, the Tokiwa was a very good long Japanese-style cucumber. Apparently very disease resistant, most east Asian cucumber varieties are also very tolerant of the heat. One Japanese variety I previously grew, Yomato, did extremely well and was very productive despite being grown in Tucson in late July and early August. Likewise, Tokiwa took the heat of the garden very well.   & ..read more

As it goes with standard cucumbers, the Tanja was definitely this season’s favorites.         Despite being a bit curved for a standard cucumber, it was quite tasty. The fact that I have to say that a curved cucumber can still taste good is quite absurd. While I will not outright state that curved cucumbers taste better, it is interesting to note that many ..read more