It may not be bitter, but it will probably be seedy. Just cut it in half, remove the seed cavity with a spoon and eat the rest. If it's bitter, feed it to the compost pile. I have missed a few this year and fed them to the chickens, but I had plenty to spare.

I go down the front side of the trellis, then the back side, then turn around and go the opposite direction for a second look and almost always find one that I had missed the first trip around. My cucumbers have been incredible this year. I looked at mine tonight and saw lots of little ones, so I may have to make pickles again tomorrow. My plants are still blooming and look great and last year I couldn't keep the vines alive.

Cucumbers are great at hiding. Like Carol, I check both sides of my trellis and I do it at least twice a day to make sure I don't miss any, and every now and then I still miss one.

I'm having a better-than-expected cucumber year even though the spider mites took out 2/3s of the plants and am making a small batch of pickles about once a week. What I call a small batch is about a half-batch, so I just refrigerate and save the leftover brine from the first half-batch, and use it a few days later for the second half-batch. Had the spider mites not hit the plants early, the pickling process would have been easier, but at least I'm still getting enough cukes to make pickles, albeit a half-batch at a time.

For large, overripe cukes, my favorite way to use them up is to make mock apple rings. I'll link the recipe below. If you only have one overly large cucumber, that's not enough to make a batch of these, obviously, but it is a handy recipe to have around, especially if you get tired of making regular pickles. At that point, you can stop picking them and then wait for there to be enough large, overripe ones that you can make a batch of these.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Mock Apple Rings Made From Cucumbers

Boy, are they hard to find sometimes! I've missed a few myself and I check everyday. I have had loads of cukes, but have given them all away. Haven't had time to make pickles yet.

I usually kind of lift up the stems of the vine a bit and if it feels heavy, I know there's a cuke close by. Still, I've missed a few and I get some pretty big ones by oversight.

I didn't have as much of a mildew problem on the Spacemaster 80s like I thought I would, but the vines are starting to get a bit "ratty" now. Dawn, I think most of the Spider Mites are on the tomatos at my place!

Susan

As the plants mature a few leaves that touch the ground on the bottom of the plant will start to turn yellow, then they make a cucumber close to that leaf and almost touching the ground, and those seem to be the ones I miss. I just don't expect an old vine to keep making cucumbers a few inches from where it comes out of the ground but that is what mine have done this year. I have missed a few up high, but most of those that got too large were almost touching the ground.

Dawn, That's an interesting recipe which I have never seen before. Just for the record, I won't be making that one. LOL One drop of red dye would put me down...and that much...WOW I think you could use dye and die in the same sentence if I ate that. I can't imagine they would look much like apple slices without the dye though. In addition, I don't use any recipe where pickling lime is required anyway and I read on the Harvest that it is no longer recommended, but still available for purchase. I am sure that I have eaten pickles processed that way, but I don't make mine that way. I do like Mrs Wages quick pickle mixes though, because they are so easy.

I will cut it tomorrow, hopefully its not bitter and will make a nice cucumber salad.

A trellis would be great I think DH is finally on board with that. My cucumbers are just now taking off because they are on the the northside of a stockade fence but they do look healthy.

I dont think I told yall about my garden expansion. During DH's vacation he decided to double my garden. He worked all week at amending the dirt with compost/sand etc. It will be great for next year. Its just so crowded right now. There is hardly anywhere to put my feetwhen I walk in.

Congrats on the garden expansion.

No matter what I do, no matter how restrained I think I am at planting time, and no matter how nice the pathways look in February through April, my May the pathways are becoming overrun by plants, and by July you cannot see any pathways. I just step carefully through the foliage that's overflowed into pathways, and try to watch for snakes.

Dawn, you would have been proud of me this year. I had my trellis' set far apart and I kept everything climbing up so there was lots of room to walk between. I had so much wasted space and this fall I am moving things closer together. LOL

Every year I say that I'm not going to move anything, but I always do. This time it is Al that wants to move it because he wants to change the watering situation. I have had soaker hoses in place, but it is like working a puzzle to get the feeder hoses in the right place to attach to the soaker hoses. The part that didn't have soaker hose wasn't any easier.

I didn't can anything today, but I did get my cherries started. Thanks for the recipe Dawn.

Carol, I am always proud of you. : )

I vote for moving things closer together any time. The downside to big open paths is that those open areas dry out more quickly. They also tend to get hot and to sprout weeds. The more close the spacing of your plants, the more they'll shade the ground which will keep the soil cool and help prevent weeds from growing. Also, the worst snake encounter I had this year (and also this week, I think) was in a clear path where I didn't have plants hanging off the beds into the pathways. I saw the snake about the same time it saw me, and we both reacted as if we were terrified of one another. Now, if that snake had been in just about any other path with all the overgrown plants filling the path, the snake and I would not have seen each other and could have avoided the whole scary experience. I know there's always snakes in my garden and I really don't want to see them. I want them to see me so they can get the heck out of the garden before one of us hurts the other one.

Tim can always tell when I've had a snake encounter because I either start clearing the pathways or just avoiding the garden as much as possible for a few days.

I think you needed a canning break. I know I did. This week, instead of canning, I've been catching up on my sleep. It has been wonderful!

You're welcome. I hope the recipe works out well for you.

Dawn

The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving has a recipe on p 340 for Sweet Red Cucumber Rings, made with Pickle Crisp (calcium chloride). Two important things to note. One, this is NOT the smaller Ball Blue Book, and two, the Pickle Crisp product called for in the recipe is no longer sold. Therefore a modification to the recipe is required, both in product and procedure. Below are the instructions given to me by the Pickle Crisp hotline.

Pickle Crisp is longer sold in pouches, but is available in jars. To avoid confusion, note that pouches with the Pickle Crisp label are in fact pickle mixes (Bread and Butter, Dill Pickles, etc.) and not pure Pickle Crisp granules.

Since publication the recipe has been modified as follows.
Stage 1, Step 2: Eliminate Pickle Crisp and soak only in water.

Stage 5, Step 3: After packing hot cucumber rings into hot jars, add the appropriate amount Pickle Crisp granules before ladeling the hot syrup into the jars. As stated on the jar label add a rounded quarter teaspoon to pints and a rounded half teaspoon to quarts.

Please note, it does not work to try to determine how much jarred Pickle Crisp would equate to the 26 g pouches called for in the original recipe. The granules are a different product. Ball has determined Pickle Crisp is not a soaking product, but rather a canning product.

Enjoy,

Seedmama

Seedmama,

Thanks for the update on the recipe.

I've bought the new Pickle Crisp but haven't tried it yet, and likely won't try it this year.

I think this heat has finished off my cucumbers. The ones that survived spider mites produced really well, but then they got all cranky just because we had two days last week when the high temp hit 111 and 109.4. I don't blame the cukes. Who wants to grow in weather like that?

Dawn

Here is a link to the same recipe that is in the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, except the step by steps instructions are presented differently. On this one, eliminate the Pickle Crisp powder in Step 1, and add the Pickle Crisp granules during Step 6.

I don't get a lot of overgrown cukes, so I prepare a half recipe at a time.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sweet Red Cucumber Rings

My plants still look really good, but of course despite hundreds of blossom each, and hand pollination in the mornings, they have quit producing. I hope I can keep them healthy until it cools down. And I hope it cools down soon.

I'm glad yours still look good. If you can keep all the pesky insects from devouring the plants, I'll bet they'll start setting fruit as soon as it cools down. I'm hoping for an early cooldown, but in a more realistic way, I'm not necessarily expecting one.

My spider-mite-weakened cucumber plants now are being hit by waves of black blister beetles. I think I'll just sow a new batch of cucumber seeds under floating row covers for fall.

I've probably pickled enough cucumbers, but want to pickle more. It is such a rare good year with no cucumber beetles and the cucumber plants have been happy and produced abundantly. I just know that next year the cucumber beetles will return with a vengeance and it will be harder to get enough cukes for pickles, so if I have a good cucumber fall, I'll have a 2-year supply of pickles on the shelves and next year won't be critical for pickling.