It is interesting

Cucumber - Indian liana 18.01.2012

We have a good handle in taste!

Cucumbers are known as a vegetable plant for more than six thousand years. Homeland of cucumber is north-western India. Cucumber fruit like pumpkin fruit is a berry. In India wild cucumbers grow in the forest, winding around trees like lianas. Fences in the villages are winded with cucumbers. At close setting of multiply-crop cucumbers they raise up, scrambling the placed under them trellis.

Cucumber is exhibited on wall-paintings of Ancient Egypt and in Greek temples that gives a reason to judge about its impressive age. In China and Japan landowners reap the harvest of these vegetables three times per year. At first cucumbers are cultivated in boxes on the roofs and then they are planted in well fertilized soil on the field and are tied up to sticks. Big fruits up to 1,5m length are hanging from fruit-frames. This type of Chinese cucumbers is cultivated nowadays in Europe in greenhouses.

 In Russia they have not only crusian carps...

Since ancient times cucumber is favorite vegetable plant in Rus’. In well-known in ХVIII century reference book for agriculture we can find: "Since in Russia... cucumbers grow better than in other European places so it is no need to give a big description of them".

It is hard to say when cucumber appeared in Rus’ for the first time. It is assumed that it was already known before IX century. First literary mentioning about cucumbers in Moscow State belongs to the German Ambassador Herberstein in 1528. Later in the 30s of the XVII century honorable mentioning of cucumbers was given by German traveler Adam Oleary (Elshleger) in its "detailed description of the travel of Holstein embassy to Muscovia and Persia."  

Peter the Great as an uppermost command issued the decree establishing a special farm for growing cucumbers. It was in the XVII century, but on the tables of ordinary people cucumber was not an exotic product anymore. Travelers from Western Europe mentioned that in Russia, cucumbers are cultivated in incredible quantity and could not understand why they growing here better than in Europe.

Cucumber-doctor

An interesting fact that all our favorite pickled cucumbers enhance male sexual vigor. Cucumbers contain large amount of sodium, without which life on the Earth is impossible. Besides, they contain chlorine, having a bleaching effect,, whitens the entire digestive tract. The fiber contained in the pickled cucumbers, stimulates healing of micro traumas and improves circulation of blood vessels.

It is proved that regular consumption of this wonder-product renews our strength after various stresses.

Here's what they wrote about cucumbers in "Doctor book" three hundred years ago:

"The water in which cucumber was boiled, quenches thirst, and if added to the ointment, composed of the juice of the rose hips or rose flowers and sugar according to all the rules, then it intensifies the action of the bowels."

Green, it was... 

Cucumber records are even included in the Guinness book. Thus, the longest cucumber - 1.83 m grown in Hungary and relates to the Chinese type of cucumbers. The room one could grow cucumber with weight over 6 kg, and the open air not significantly less - 3.7 kg.

Life for one cucumber

In the old days, when the cucumbers were a rare thing, the Turkish Sultan Mohammed II, the cruel and greedy, once ordered to cut bellies of his seven subordinates to find out which of them had eaten one of the cucumbers, sent him as a gift.

Now cucumber would not cause such violent scenes - the usual vegetable in the garden, but in spite of that we don’t love it less. Cucumber fruits have very valuable taste, nutritional and medical qualities.

What is unusual, it is the only vegetable, fruits of which we eat in green,  unripe condition. The history of cucumber on our table is very interesting by itself.