The last few years have been a cucumber struggle for us. Our cucumbers have gotten some sort of boring grub that causes the plants to collapse as soon as they start to fruit. We rotate beds every year, but to no avail. Since we love to crock ferment our own pickles, this has been a real drag.
An up side to our late winter/spring....it seems that maybe we bypassed this bugs life cycle! We planted two sections of cucumbers, each with different trellis systems. Our hope was that at least one section would make it through this year. So far, so good! We are just starting to get baby cucs and the crock full of brine is filling nicely. Soon we hope to have farm bags brimming over with them.
Last night I was craving some freshness, and though our tomatoes are quite a ways out yet, I broke down and bought some at the store to make a variation of a Greek salad with yogurt dressing. I completely made the dressing up and only hope that I can reproduce it! Simple summer flavors that make your taste buds sing!
Greek Summer Salad
Dice up a bunch of cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and a handful of kalamata olives and throw them in a big bowl. In a separate bowl whisk together (these are approximations, because I was just throwing things in to taste) 1 C plain Greek yogurt, 1/8 C chive flower vinegar, splash of red wine vinegar, 1 tsp sugar, 1 clove garlic (minced), 1/4 C chopped dill, salt and pepper to taste ( I also threw in a dash of Penzy's mural of flavor seasoning). Toss the veggies in the dressing and viola, Greek summer salad.
I can only imagine the joy of eating what grows in your backyard.
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