You have been growing cucumbers and you finally harvest a few. Then you slice one up, stick it in your mouth and quickly spit it out due to the bitter taste. I have done it and it made me mad. So what to do about it? Let me see if I can help.

First, why is it bitter? The bitter taste comes from a compound called cucurbitacin. This is found in the plant leaves, roots, and to some degree the fruit. It is also in the peel. Therefore, to minimize spreading it all over the fruit part of the vegetable when you cut it. Make sure to wash you knife or peeler each time you make a pass at peeling and also start from the blossom end of the fruit and peel toward the stem. While this system may help, I have found that I still end up throwing away the cucumber because even a little bit is too much.

So here are some other considerations.

Make sure the plant is healthy and evenly watered. The sure way to a bitter cucumber is a stressed plant. I always use a mulch with my cucumbers and I would recommend this to help keep the plant drought resistant. Other simple practices such as proper fertilization and pest control are also essential.

Another possibility of growing bitter free cucumbers is to buy a burpless variety. Now keep in mind that many seed companies will use the term burpless, but that may just be more of a marketing term than actually being bitter-free. However, it has been my experience that burpless varieties have a less chance of being bitter than normal (non-burpless) varieties.

Don’t try and pickle a bitter cucumber since it will be bitter as a pickle too.

Hope that helps.

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Well, after a number of years we are now alive and kicking. I hope you all love the service. Let me know what you think of the new interface and additional features. We are committed to continually add new features and making this service better and better as time goes on.

You can still get a free trial account, but it only allows you one vegetable to test with. Otherwise the service is $24.95 for a one year subscription. Since the season is pretty much over, we are adding an incentive for sign-ups for the rest of the year. You get a 2 year subscription for the price of one year or $24.95.

I hope all of those who used our service this year was successful and enjoying a great harvest. We have heard great things so far. Keep the good news coming.

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VegeNag.com is coming out of beta testing on Monday. This means that free accounts will be limited on the vegetable selections. It will also mean the complete redo of the plant manager. One of the new features will be displaying the next event for each vegetable.

Be sure to sign up before Monday so that your free account will be automatically upgraded to a premium subscription. Tell your friends too, since on Monday the site will begin to charge for premium subscriptions.

We hope you will like the new interface.

Thanks for all those that helped during beta testing. You have helped to make this product become highly useful.

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Per my last post we have lots of banana peppers and we use them for sandwiches and such. Therefore, we enjoy canning them for this purpose. I thought I should share our methods.

First you will need a least a pound and a half of peppers. Pictured below is about that amount. (one picking from 3 plants).

Next you will need the following ingredients:

• 6 cups of vinegar
• 2 cups of water
• 3 cloves of garlic
• Salt
• Alum or “pickle crisp“

Cut up your peppers into 1 inch pieces or into rings. Combine your vinegar, water and garlic into a large saucepot. Bring to boil and then reduce hear and let simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove garlic. Pack peppers into hot jars (we use 1 pint jars) and leave at least 1/4 inch of space on the top. Pour your hot liquid over the peppers leaving the same 1/4 inch at the top. Remove any air bubbles. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt per pint and the appropriate amount of Alum (about 1/4 teaspoon per pint) or “pickle crisp” which I think is better. Put the caps on and process for 10 minutes in boiling water canner. The tops should seal themselves after a while. It should make about 5 pints.

If you do this with hot peppers, make sure to wear gloves as they can irritate your skin.

You will notice the jalapeno peppers in the picture. These are “no heat” jalapenos and we like to combine them with the banana peppers. You can also add serrano peppers to this concoction. If you do only add about 1/4 pound. Let me know if you another method for banana peppers.

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I tried some new varieties this year of peppers. I do not like really hot peppers, so up until now, I have only planted sweet peppers. This year, however, I discovered “Fooled You” jalapeno peppers and, of course, I love banana peppers so I decided to give them a try. What a success.

I am having a great harvest and we are going to use some for salads and salsas, but mostly we will store them by pickling them together and using for nachos or other dishes.

Here are a few keys to success with peppers that you might consider for next year if you struggled this year:

• Good complete fertilizer before you plant (16-16-8 with ironite) is what I used. You should check your soil and figure out what is best for you.
• Additional feedings 4 and 8 weeks after transplanting with, at least, ammonium sulfate (Nitrogen 20-0-0).
• Black plastic mulch to retain moisture and prevent weeds
• Water once a week deeply, but infrequently.

We started ours from seed indoors before transplanting them out into the garden allowing us to get the varieties we wanted and saved a bunch of money by not having to buy starts.

For the proper dates on when to plant peppers or for a customized planting guide for your area go to VegeNag.com and sign up for a free account.

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