Cucumber

 Cucumis sativus

Cucumbers don't have to be green and oblong as the ones we find in the supermarket – they can also be white, yellow, round and oval. Why not try a new kind this year?

Crystal Apple, organic seeds

Beth Alpha, organic

Loofah, organic seeds

Cool Customer, organic seeds

La Diva, organic seeds

Gergana, organic seeds

Shintokiwa, organic seeds

Sonja, organic seeds

Marketmore 76, organic seeds

Miniature White, organic seeds

Arboga White, organic seeds

Tanja, organic seeds

Suyo Long, organic seeds

Xin Tai, organic seeds

Muncher, organic seeds

Super Zagross, organic seeds

History

Cucumbers have been grown for a very long time. The oldest finds come from South-East Asia and are dated to 9750 CE. The ancestors of our present cucumber, however, are not reliably identified as yet. Probably it is descended from an unappetizing wild species, C. hardwickii, which grows on the southern slopes of the Himalayas and in northern India.

4000 years ago it was grown universally in most of Asia and arrived in Europe via the Middle East and North Africa. With the fall of the Roman Empire it disappeared from Europe and was not grown again until the mid 1500s. The cucumber came to Sweden in the 1600s.

Cucumbers are, together with melons, pumpkins, marrows, squashes and gourds, the most commonly grown crops of the gourd family.